


We're The Same

by fuckingpubert



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AHOT6 - Freeform, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe- Powers, High School AU, M/M, Ray centric ot6, Self Harm, powers au, ray centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 13:38:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2271753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuckingpubert/pseuds/fuckingpubert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray was born without any powers. Being so different isn't easy, not in High School. But once he's accepted onto the RT program, things start to get a whole lot better as he meets the unique Gavin Free and his group of amazingly skilled friends, and finally, Ray finds somewhere he can feel at home. Really, they're the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. So, What's Your Power?

**Author's Note:**

> yay powers au
> 
> so basically, everybody has a power except Ray in this lovely little world I've created, and I do explain all of the powers but please let me know if it's not clear what someone can do 
> 
> hope you like!

Ray never had a super power. It sucked, because everyone else on the RT program at his school had powers; even the teachers. In fact, everyone else at the whole school, and pretty much everyone he'd ever met in his life all had powers. He often wondered if maybe it was because of the fact that he was born without a power that his parents had abandoned him. 

Ray could very clearly remember being accepted onto the Rooster Teeth program in his high school. It was for the top students and the top students only to get the best possible tutoring and mix with the best possible people; people who were like them. Only, Ray wasn't like the other kids there. He wasn't like anyone. When he'd tried to tell the teacher in charge of the whole organisation this, Mr. Burns had simply waved him off with a friendly, encouraging smile and told him something that would stay with him forever. 

"Your power is normality. You're not like everyone else, Ray, but you don't have to be. A power doesn't define you, _you define you._ And you're always gonna get people who like you no matter what power you have, or in your case, haven't got."

It had definitely been a confidence boost for him. Mr. Burns was one of the nicest guys Ray had ever met in his life, and when he received his class list and noticed that his first class would be with the very same man, to say he was excited would be an understatement.  Unfortunately, he'd very blatantly forgotten about the other kids. None of them would know him, since the RT program kids had their own separate building to the regular school that Ray had been in up until now, so he would have to introduce himself to everyone all over again. And of course, there was only one way to kick off a conversation in class. 

'So, what's your power?'

Honestly, Ray thought he would never have to answer that question to a bunch of snotty high school kids ever again. No matter what, the responses were always negative. The person would either find a way to edge their way out of the conversation and then never speak to him again, or loudly make fun of him, which often got the rest of the class he was in to join in with the fun. It wasn't long before everyone in the lower school knew about Ray and everybody did everything they could to completely dodge him or make his life a living hell. He vividly remembered one time when a telekinetic boy (telekinesis was a very common power, and generally at least three in every class would have it) had moved some gum right out of Ray's mouth and into his hair. Some other kids had joked about how if maybe Ray had powers of his own, he would have been able to stop it or get revenge in some way. Ray had cried that night, and he hadn't cried since.

But his first day at RT was different. He'd walked into his class, hanging his head and dragging his feet behind a giggling girl who was floating rather than walking, and taken a seat near the back quietly, doing everything in his power to not draw attention to himself. Unfortunately for Ray, a new kid was not something that went unnoticed at RT. Immediately, the boy in front of him and the girl to his right turned away from their small group of friends to stare at him.  

It was the girl who spoke up first.

"Barbara," she said, sticking out her hand to him with a pearly white grin. Her blonde hair bounced into her face slightly, falling gracefully over her shoulder and tumbling onto the top of her strapless red shirt. She was a very pretty girl, and Ray smiled sheepishly as he took her hand and shook it. Just as he was about to introduce himself, his eyes were drawn down to her clothing, as the colour in it faded, and slowly, a sweet purple, the exact same shade as the hoodie he was wearing, seeped into the material of her shirt and jeans. He hadn't noticed how shocked he had looked until she giggled and drew back her hand. "I have a whole thing with colours. I didn't realise it was so shocking, I mean it's kinda shitty power really." 

"No," Ray countered quickly, shaking his head and looking back up at her face. "It's awesome. I'm Ray by the way."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Ray." 

The boy in front of him seemed fascinated by Ray's reaction to Barabara's power. It wasn't exactly a unique power, but Ray had never seen anything like it before. 

"So Ray," the boy, rather rudely, invited himself into the conversation with a grin, and Ray could already feel the question coming onto him. "What's your power?" 

To Ray's relief and rather miraculously, Mr. Burns ordered the class' attention at that exact moment. Barbara and the boy both turned away from Ray and took to listening to the teacher. Ray nearly sighed out loud, having been holding his breath before, waiting for these two to instantly turn on him. 

"Morning everyone," Mr. Burns said cheerfully, and placed his phone down on his desk before standing up and walking around it to address his class. "Some of you might have noticed we have a new student here today." He indicated Ray politely. "This is Ray, he was moved up recently from the lower school. Now, I expect all of you guys to treat Ray just as you would treat anyone else, even though he doesn't have a power." This raised some discussion in the class. Everything was whispered and Ray naturally blocked it all out. Barbara was staring at him with wide eyes, like one would stare at a strange, newly discovered species of duck, and the boy in front of him had visibly tensed. "Quiet down," Mr Burns ordered, raising his hand and letting silence fall. "He's no different than the rest of us. So we'll all treat him equally. Now, on with class."

For the next hour, everybody in the classroom silently got on with the work Mr. Burns had set, which was ten times harder than everything Ray had done in the lower school, but it was nice to be challenged. It distracted him from the boy in the corner of the room who was staring at him, not very maliciously, but with a smirk plastered onto his face nonetheless. He could feel the pale blue gaze on him as he worked, and as much as it did make him extremely uncomfortable, he was doing his best not to think about it. 

After the bell, Ray was one of the last in the class. He wanted to talk to Mr. Burns about their homework in private, but the guy in front of him just wasn't leaving. He made a point of packing his things away as slowly as possible.

"Coming Gavin?" Barbara asked impatiently as she yanked the door open, but the boy (Gavin, apparently) shook his head. She shrugged and left anyway. It was then that Ray realised Gavin was quite obviously waiting for him, as he turned around and leaned on the back of his chair, offering Ray a friendly smile that he was reluctant to return. 

"Hi Ray," he said, in a much more polite tone than he had earlier. "I'm Gavin."

"Yeah, hey," Ray responded quietly. Swinging his bag over his shoulder, he couldn't help but notice the British twang in Gavin's voice, something he found incredibly cute, but he wasn't really looking up at Gavin at all. 

"Want me to walk you to your next class?" He offered, taking a step closer to Ray and before Ray knew it, his class list was no longer in his hand, but in Gavin's. "You're in the same classes as me all day."

"How did you-" Ray started, baffled, but was cut off by the sound of both Gavin and Mr. Burns chuckling. However, Mr. Burns' laughter had soon stopped as his pen disappeared from his hand and quickly reappeared in Gavin's. 

"Hey, Gavin!" He sighed, watching as the Brit put a 'G' next to all of the classes on Ray's list that they shared. He handed it back to Ray with a mischievous grin and began to explain. 

"It's my power. I can slow down time  _a lot_ so I can do things in what looks like an instant to you, but is actually pretty long for me. It can be quite useful sometimes."

"Right," Ray replied, shaking his head. Obviously, it was Gavin's power. Though, he'd never heard of anything like that before. Sure, there were people who could rewind time (still, they were never able to change anything, only live the moment again) but slow it down? That was new. Interesting. "I've never heard of a power like that before."

Gavin shrugged with a grin, heading for the door with Ray in tow. "I guess I'm unique. So, our next class is Power Honing...Why do you have that class if you don't have a power?" 

"I dunno. I guess it's required for everyone and they didn't really think of anything for someone without powers," Ray assumed, walking beside Gavin and keeping his arms tightly around himself. He sort of knew Gavin didn't want to be his friend. Nobody did, they just wanted to make fun of him. So he kept up all of his barriers, as per usual, and let Gavin play his little game. 

"You wanna sit with me and my friends at lunch today? I guess since you're new, you wouldn't have anyone else-"

Ray sighed loudly in exasperation and came to a complete stop in the hallway. "Look, man, I get the joke, but that's kinda low." 

"What? What do you mean by that? I'm not kidding Ray, I really want you to sit with us! I...I think it's pretty cool that you don't have a power; I've never met anyone like you before."

And somehow, Gavin sounded so genuine, that Ray nearly forgot about all the bullying and all the hate he'd received in the lower school. Slowly, he started to pick up his walking again and frowned, looking at anything other than Gavin. It wasn't going to be  _that_ simple for him to just let this new guy into his life like nothing was ever wrong, as if he'd never been so isolated, so completely and utterly ostracized, so horribly treated that he couldn't sleep at night. No, if Gavin really wanted anything to do with him, he was going to have to prove it. He'd definitely have to work hard to do that. 

"I guess I'll sit with you."

 

* * *

 

 

Power honing with Matt Hullum was just as Ray had thought it would be; absolutely awful. He got to sit and watch as Mr. Hullum went round helping the kids in the class perfect their powers, and was even allowed to take notes on all different types of powers he had witnessed. As if he wasn't envious enough of the people who were born with what he longed for so greatly. 

 

Most of the class were up on their feet, figuring out how far out they could stretch their shield or how heavy of an object they could levitate but there was one boy who was sitting calmly in the corner with his glasses on the table and his eyes shut tight. He had his right hand on his temple. Ray didn't really want to interrupt Gavin in the middle of his training, but he just had to know.

"Gavin," he called out, and the Brit was in front of him in an instant, making him jump slightly, which Gavin seemed amused by. "What's that guy over there doing?" He indicated to the light haired boy, who he'd just now noticed was the same one from his previous class; the boy who had been staring at him for a whole hour. 

"Oh, that's Ryan," Gavin explained, smiling rather fondly. "He's a mind reader."

"A mind reader!?" Ray exclaimed, probably a little  _too_  loud. He had often read about mind readers, thinking that if he could have any power, he would most certainly choose that one, but they were mostly extinct for many different reasons. Only the most intelligent of people could actually give birth to a mind reader, and usually once they had grown up, the world became a bit too loud for most. The majority of mind readers died in their early twenties; suicides. After a while, being able to hear everyone all at once becomes exhausting. Still, Ray could think of nothing better than being able to read minds, as the whole concept of it was just so incredible to him, someone so regular and boring. 

"Yup. One of the last of his kind," the Brit further explained, pulling up a chair and sitting beside Ray. "Whenever I'm telling people how awesome of a teacher Mr. Hullum is, he's always the example I use. Matt taught Ryan how to make Mind Links with people, so he can talk to those people through their minds. Right now, he's trying to teach him how to turn his powers on and off, but since there's never really been a mind reader who lived long enough to do that, he doesn't have much to go off of."

"How do you know so much about him?" Ray wondered out loud.

"He's my friend!" Gavin said with a grin as Ryan's eyes snapped open and he glanced over at Gavin and Ray with a calculating look. The Brit waved manically and Ray could do nothing but smile sheepishly and try to think about anything,  _anything_ , other than how creepy mind readers really were. And he probably shouldn't have been thinking about how Ryan's eyes were his favourite shade of blue either. "We have a Mind Link and everything."

_'Gavin, will you please be quiet? Some of us are trying to focus.'_ Ryan's cold voice rang in Gavin's ears and he quickly quieted down, patting Ray on the back and ending up over on the other side of the room again before giving Ray time to blink. 

A mind reader. 

Ray had countless questions for Ryan already, and when he started to plan them out in his head, he realised he really shouldn't, as Ryan's pale blue gaze dug into him like sharp ice from across the room. He tried desperately to keep his thoughts to himself. 

 

* * *

 

 

Lunch came around pretty quickly, and Gavin lead Ray over to a table of four other guys, including Ryan, once they'd gotten their food. Timidly, Ray took a seat in between Gavin and a guy who had the beginnings of a great beard and a warm presence. He was the only one to politely smile at Ray rather than stare at him blankly like the others were doing. 

"Well, hey there," he said to Ray, glancing over at Gavin. "Who's your friend Gavin?"

"Oh, this is Ray! I asked him to sit with us today, since he's new." Gavin explained, seeming to keep a watchful eye on the red-headed boy across from Ray in particular. Ray noticed but chose not to comment on it. 

"I'm Jack," the guy next to him offered his hand, which Ray shook with a smile, seeming to be comforted just by Jack's open and friendly attitude. "A Healer." 

Healers were pretty rare nowadays, as most of them would be sent off to important battles to, well, heal obviously. Often, they did not return, as it was typical for a Healer to lack in real physical strength, and they could not use their powers to their own benefit. This was also why most Healer's were so generous and caring. Their entire power was based on the protection of others. 

"Geoff Ramsey," the guy opposite Gavin introduced himself. He seemed a lot more open than Jack, and actually looked pretty intimidating. Ray thought it was quite clear he was the 'leader' of this little gaggle of superiors. They all very clearly prided themselves on their unique powers. "Empowerer." 

Empowerer was something Ray had only ever heard of once, and that was at his old foster home. His foster father had been an Empowerer, and a very horrible one at that. The had the threatening ability to control another persons body. A lot of the time, they tended to 'disappear' which basically meant they were killed before they got the chance to become over-powered. It was typical that when an Empowerer took control of someone, they could not use that person's power. Still, being an Empowerer was dangerous business. Ray found himself shaking hands with Geoff before he told himself to do so, and knew that Geoff was showing off his skills. 

"Ryan Haywood," Ryan mumbled. "But you already knew that." Those blue eyes were piercing into him again, and Ray wondered if he would only get that genuine  _piercing_  feeling when Ryan was rooting through his mind. 

An awkward silence settled over the table and Ray wondered if the guy in front of him was even going to bother introducing himself, or maybe just saying hi. He did not.

"This is Michael," Geoff spoke for him. "Fire pixie." Gavin and Geoff erupted into giggles while Jack simply shook his head smiling. Ryan stayed out of it.

"Shut the fuck up," Michael groaned, and Ray realised that probably explained his attitude. People with elemental powers often acted in a way that represented their power perfectly. Michael already seemed pretty hot-headed (pardon the pun). An elemental power was common, but fire was probably the most rare, and definitely the most difficult to master.

"Ray Narvaez Jr," Ray said, rather flatly, watching in horror as they all (other than Ryan and Gavin) settled, awaiting the second part of his introduction, the name or description of his power. "I, uh, don't have a power."

"You don't have a power?" Michael asked, a sort of incredulous accusation in his tone. "Come on man, however shitty your power is, it can't be as bad as not even having one, so just spit it out." 

Gavin audibly gasped and slammed his hands down on the table. "Michael!" He scolded, but Geoff seemed to have blocked Gavin out completely.

"Yeah Ray, I know we all have pretty intimidating powers, but we won't think any less of you if yours isn't quite as cool. You don't have to lie," he encouraged, but really, Ray knew he was lying about that. From the way that other people were looking at them, Ray could tell that these guys were top of the RT program. They didn't take shit from anyone, and they didn't take anyone who was shit. 

"He really doesn't have a power," Ryan clarified. "I've been looking through his memories all day. He was born without one, as far as I can tell. Still, he's very intelligent. I guess you'd have to be to get into the RT program without a power."

"Gavin, you brought a guy without a power to sit with us?" Michael asked him, disbelieving and frustrated, but Jack was having none of it. He shushed Michael and turned to face Ray in his seat, who seemed to have shrunk in on himself once again, bringing up his walls and blocking out the other guys. However, Jack was so easy to open up to, Ray found it difficult not to look over at him. And the longer he looked at him, the harder it got to hold himself together; the more he wanted to break down and cry because once again, no one wanted him around. He wondered if Jack had learned to stretch his healing powers to emotional levels. 

"I think having someone without powers around would be good for us. Also, that's pretty amazing. You're going to go down in history books, Ray!"

"I agree." Geoff said, very suddenly and very unexpectedly. He sent a smile Ray's way, to which he could only stare at. "I think you'd give us a really awesome new dynamic."

"Don't you  _want_ a power?" Michael asked, still with that hateful look on his face. 

"No. Not at all."

He wanted a power more than anything. 

 


	2. Quite A Good Looking Young Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray is invited to Geoff's house for pizza, where he witnesses Michael's fiery abilities for the first time and Gavin gets a little too close for comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks everyone for all the kudos already appreciate that so much it's really encouraging :)
> 
> so this chapter my be a little cliche but i'm just setting a preface
> 
> enjoy!

Gavin had constantly got Ray to sit with him in all of their classes that day, and it was kind of exhausting for him. Ray wasn't exactly used to having friends anyway, and Gavin was quite a handful. Everything he did was so fast paced and required so much energy that, by the end of the day, Ray just didn't have anymore, so when the last bell sounded and the Brit had his things packed away within a second and was telling Ray 'let's go', Ray could no longer support himself. He leaned himself gently against Gavin and sighed, barely even conscious that he was doing it. 

"Gavin, please, slow down a little," Ray muttered, packing his things away into his bag. "Besides, we're going home now anyway."

"Actually, me and the guys are going to Geoff's for pizza! You should come with us!" Gavin encouraged gleefully, practically bouncing on his heels as Ray swung his bag over his shoulder. He reminded Ray of the puppy that his old foster parents had, when they would go out for a long day and return home to find him, always so ecstatic to see them. 

"Yeah, well," Ray started, about to make up some bullshit excuse about how he wanted to get all his homework done, and his mom needs him to do his chores and he wasn't allowed out on Monday's, but his mouth started talking without his consent. Someone was putting words in his mouth, and there was only one person in this school who he knew of with that ability. "I'd love to. Thanks, Gavin." His eyes flickered over to the door, where sure enough, Geoff was stood, flashing him a grin. 

"Coming boys?" He enquired, the smug smirk not leaving his face but Gavin didn't seem to pick up on it. Ray shot him a quick glare, but his eyes were far more drawn to the scowling Michael who stood right beside the Empowerer at the door. Those hateful eyes  _burned_ into his skin and he couldn't help but think, if Michael really wanted to, he literally could burn Ray's skin entirely. He could only imagine the extent of Michael's powers, since he was with  _these_ guys, who were blatantly the best of the best.  There had to be more to him than just a little smoke and flames. 

They rode home in Ryan's car, who was constantly complaining that they were all thinking too loudly and asking them to shut up, specifically Michael, who would argue out loud to things that Ray could not hear. He assumed Ryan had a Mind Link set up with all of the boys, which made him particularly uncomfortable. They could all be internally talking about him and he'd never know it. It would be so easy for them to make fun of him while he was sat right beside them. So every little joke anyone cracked, and any small giggle that would slip past the boys' lips made Ray all the more nervous about being anywhere near them, so much as going over to one of their houses. Silently, he pulled out his phone and texted his foster mother, one of the nicest women he had ever met and felt blessed to have around, to let her know he would be spending the evening at a friend's house. She shot him back a light-hearted text, congratulating him on making some friends at the RT program, since she knew he'd never been the talkative type, but she also made some sharp inquiries on who his new 'buddies' were and where exactly they lived. Smiling like an idiot, he typed out the name 'Geoff Ramsey' and figured she would know who he was; his mother was friends with almost everybody in this town. 

"Who are you texting, Ray?" Geoff asked, suggestive hints in his tone as he wiggled his eyebrows, a grin playing on the corners of his lips. Gavin's head snapped round to look at Ray, who looked like a deer in the headlights. God, it would sound so lame if he said he was texting his  _mom_ , especially after Geoff had made it out to be a big deal, like he was talking to his girlfriend or something. Some lies formed in his head about a long distance relationship, but when he heard some low chuckles coming from the driver's seat of the car, he remembered how fruitless an attempt at a lie would be. Ryan already knew.

"Just letting my mom know where I am..." He replied sheepishly, looking down at his feet and closing his arms around himself. This was fairly difficult, sitting in between Geoff Gavin and Michael, as there was little room to move at all. 

"Oh," Geoff said, though he wasn't disappointed like Ray had expected he would be. Rather, a large grin was actually spreading on his face, and when he shared a look with Jack who was sat in the passenger seat, Ray  _knew_ they were making fun of him. He sighed, closing in on himself once again and building his walls up even higher. Before he had even arrived at Geoff's house, he wanted to leave. Geoff and Jack were silently joking about him, Ryan had laughed at his futile attempt at lying and Michael very clearly hated him with burning passion. Still, he had Gavin. Gavin didn't seem so bad. 

The rest of the journey was filled mainly with Gavin talking a lot of nonsense and the others making fun of him, in a way that only many years of friendship could excuse. Ray did not say another word until they arrived at Geoff's door. 

"What time do we have to leave?" he questioned quietly, his voice barely heard above the sound of Geoff and Jack manically laughing at some ridiculous comment Gavin had made. 

"You don't, buddy," Geoff confirmed, wiping a tear away from his eye from laughing so hard before letting them all into his house. Everyone made a bee line for the basement, which was set up like a small games room, with two chairs, a beanbag and a two-person couch all circled around a fairly sized TV and a pool table at the fair side of the room. It became clear rather quickly that the boys had a seating order, and there was no room for Ray in it at all. Geoff and Jack sat on the two seater couch together while Ryan and Michael took their places in either one of the arm chairs. Gavin collapsed down onto the beanbag with a content sigh, reached for the remote and switched on the TV, handing the two X-box controllers to Michael and Ryan. Awkwardly hovering by the door, Ray decided he wouldn't speak up about the situation; he was afraid they'd ask him to sit on the floor, or worse, tell him there was no room and he had to leave. This was extremely nonsensical and he knew that. 

"Ray!" Gavin, to his relief, noticed him first and scooted over on his make-shift seat that actually looked fairly comfortable. "Come 'ere you. There's not much room, but it will do!" 

"Oh shit, yeah, sorry man, I totally forgot," Geoff apologized briefly, dialing a number on his phone as he did so. Probably ordering the pizza. 

"It's alright," Ray brushed off casually, placing himself on the beanbag with Gavin. He sunk into it, ending up a lot closer to Gavin than he had intended, but there was hardly any helping it.

"You play much, Ray?" Jack asked him, interested as Michael and Ryan loaded up a game of Halo. Ray shrugged before he answered.

"Sometimes," he flat out lied, since he had spent most of his summer, and more or less every day after school playing his X-box at home. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. "I suck though."

"At Halo?" Ryan mused, more focused on the game than the answer to his question.

"At everything," Ray mumbled, used to being so self-deprecating since he knew there was nothing special about him. He didn't even have a power for goodness sake, there was no way he was a big deal in  _any_ given situation. 

"Well, none of us are exactly professionals, trust me," Jack assured, chuckling as he turned away from Ray to watch what was going on on the screen. Michael and Ryan were too concentrated to chat and Geoff was ordering their food. Gavin took his opportunity for a private chat with Ray. 

"Are you gonna stay the night?" He said suddenly, startling Ray slightly. He chuckled slightly at the response and Ray's cheeks heated from the embarrassment of it; he had no idea why he was so on edge. It probably had something to do with how strong he knew all of these guys were. Maybe not so much physically (although Michael did act a lot like he could knock him out with one punch), but their powers were just indescribably awesome. 

"I dunno," Ray replied honestly, since he hadn't really thought about it yet. He doubted it very much, since he wasn't exactly comfortable around these guys, at least not yet. "Probably not."

"Why?" Gavin pouted, like a child being denied candy. 

"'Cause, Gavin, I literally just met you guys today. It'd be pretty weird to stay at one of your houses," he muttered, playing with the strings on his purple hoodie. 

"Oh yeah...Sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking," he said, shimmying his arm out from where it was trapped between the two of them and draping at around Ray's shoulders which made him tense slightly. This was a little too up close and personal for someone he didn't really feel like he could trust yet. "Sorry, do you mind?" He asked, but before Ray could answer him, they were interrupted by the sound of Michael yelling angrily at Ryan.

"You bastard!! What the fuck, Ryan!?" Cue Ryan's maniacal laughter. "I'm not playing with Ryan anymore! He always knows what I'm gonna do!"

"No shit," Geoff laughed, having put his phone down on the arm of the chair just moments ago and joined the fun. A few more expletives from Michael later and he had given up, handing (more like throwing) the controller to Gavin, who quite literally squawked as it nearly hit him in the face. The next half hour went on like this, the boys passing around the controllers, laughing at each others failures and all of them seeming rather amazed at Ray's game play, despite it being distinctly average in his opinion. It wasn't long before the pizzas arrived, and Geoff came downstairs carrying three boxes, opening the and laying them down in the middle of their little huddle. Ray had offered Geoff some money towards the food, but Geoff had insisted that he keep it; apparently Geoff always paid. It was like tradition or something. 

"Does this taste under-cooked to anyone?" Gavin complained, examining his half eaten slice of pizza while everyone grunted, disagreeing with him entirely. All of a sudden, Gavin's slice was aflame, and he throw it down at the box as quickly as he could, the fire dissipating rapidly while everybody laughed, particularly Michael. "Michael!" Gavin yelled in a very upset and disapproving tone.

"What? Is that not better?" he asked through his laughter, indicating the charred waste of perfectly good pizza. Now that, Ray thought, was extremely impressive. As far as he knew, people with elemental powers had to be touching something to transfer that element to it; for example, people with Earth powers would have to touch the ground to fully access their abilities. Wind powers were an exception. But fire? Ray didn't think it was possible for a fire power to be used without touch. Michael was proving himself very skilled, if not the rarest of the bunch. 

 _'These guys are un-fucking-believably talented.'_ Ray thought, forgetting for a moment to try to obscure his feelings towards them.  _'Annnd then there's me.'_

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself," Ryan said, out loud to Ray, clearly having heard his inner monologue. "We wouldn't have invited you here if we didn't like you. Trust me, we don't have time to waste on bringing you into our group just to make fun of you." He seemed to have startled not only Ray, but the rest of the boys too. However, they recovered much quicker than he did.

"He's right," Geoff confirmed, turning a slightly concerned look on Ray. Before anyone could say another word, Geoff's mother's voice interrupted them. She told them that Ray's mom was here to pick him up, and Ray went so red he thought he would explode. His mom was great and all, but why couldn't she just let him walk home and save him the embarrassment?

"I'll walk you to the door," Gavin offered, getting up and holding his hand out to Ray, which he took gratefully and let Gavin lift him off of the beanbag. They headed upstairs together after Ray said an awkward goodbye to the rest of the boys and stopped right at the front door. His mother was parked up right outside, waving at him out of her car window. Shaking his head but still smiling, Ray turned back to Gavin and thanked him. 

"Hey, give me your number. I'll text you tomorrow morning and we can walk to school together," Gavin decided, not leaving much room for rejection as he held his phone out to Ray. After a moments consideration, he took it, entering his phone number and naming himself 'Hot Mess' which Gavin laughed at before saying his goodbyes. As Ray slipped into his car, he looked back to where Gavin had been standing just moments ago to find nothing but a closed front door. He figured Gavin had used his powers to flash back down to the basement and shook his head, smiling to himself as he pulled the car door closed. 

"The last time I saw Geoff Ramsey," Ray's foster mother began as she started up the car. "He was seven years old and he'd just lost his front teeth." She smiled to herself, her red-coated lips stretching up in a way that Ray thought was a blessing to witness. Her power was very under-appreciated, he thought, a photographic memory. It also made it very hard to get away with, well, anything. He'd never really needed to anyway though. It wasn't like Ray was going on any secret dates or getting invited to parties any time soon. "How is he?"

"He's good," Ray said, not really knowing the answer so just assumed Geoff was okay. He didn't seem to be unhappy.

"Who was that boy you were at the door with?" She was practically quizzing him at this point. "I've never met him before."

"That's Gavin, I met him today too."

"He's quite a good looking young man isn't he?" She tried, a little grin appearing.

"I guess?"

"I would say so."

"Mom, please."

"Alright, alright, I'm only saying," she giggled under her breath and Ray sighed, face-palming. She never stopped doing this and he did find it vaguely amusing; though he would never admit that. "Oh, I have a meeting with Mr. Burns tomorrow."

"Why?" Ray wondered out loud. There was no reason for that, he had only joined the RT program today, what on Earth could he have to say to Ray's mother this early on?

"We've arranged to meet once every week to talk about you since I told him you were bullied in the lower school," she said, perfectly honestly and as though that was a very casual and totally okay thing to do. Ray disagreed.

"Why would you tell him that!? God, Mom!"

"Well, I'm only trying to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again Ray. I don't like to see you upset." An awkward silence settled over in the car, Ray staring out the window and his mother with her eyes intent on the road in front of her. When she spoke up again, her voice was much softer. "I'm so glad you've already made friends Ray. How many?"

Ray sighed and decided to put the Mr. Burns situation behind them. If that's what his mom needed to do to be content with Ray's school life, then so be it. He would not deny her that as he cared for her too much to argue about it. "There's five guys. They're all really nice and one of them's a mind reader." This lead on to an intense conversation about the lives and deaths of mind readers and the likes. 

Ray's foster mother had been the most important person in his life from the very first day he had walked into her house. She had been the first person to really embrace the fact that he was powerless, and had even chosen him among a whole load of other kids who all had their own powers. She had always told him that being so different made him special. Though he had never believed her, he admired her for loving him regardless of his situation, and he would always do everything in his power to take care of her and make her as happy as she could possibly be.Once they arrived home, Ray washed the dishes, made two cups of tea, one for his mother and one for him and settled down on the couch with her to watch one of her TV shows that she insisted Ray watch with her. He had seen the first few episodes, but he still had no idea what was going on. He played along for her sake. As soon as it was over, he made a mad dash for the stairs up to his room, where he switched on his X-box and nestled himself within his bed sheets with the controller. It was around eleven when his mom interrupted his game play to kiss him on the cheek and tell him she was off to bed. He figured he should probably call it a night too, when his phone flashed with a number he didn't recognise.

**Want to do something adventurous? x**

Momentarily confused, he tapped out a reply of 'who is this?' before mentally slapping himself for not realising straight away. He erased the message and quickly saved the number under 'Gavin' before typing his new reply. 

**What would that be? I was just about to go to bed, Gavin.**

He considered returning the kiss that Gavin had put in his text but decided against it. It was really dumb, but Ray figured that kind of gesture portrayed a certain level of trust that he just didn't have for Gavin, or any of the guys for that matter, yet. It was only a moment later that his phone buzzed again. 

**Don't be boring! We're going for a dip in the pond at the park. We'll drop by your house and pick you up, yeah? x**

Oh, the temptation was there. Ray knew he'd never be allowed out if his mom had already gone to bed, but there was always the possibility of sneaking out? No, he could never betray his mother's trust like that. She had done far too much for him. Besides, he still wasn't all that comfortable around these guys anyway. And Michael would be there. He tapped out his final reply before putting his phone and charge and getting ready for bed.

**I'll pass.**

 

* * *

 

 

"Don't tell me you're gonna sulk like this all night just because your new boyfriend won't come out with us," Michael groaned at Gavin, shoving him towards the pond after removing his own shirt. Gavin was watching the other guys take off their shirts and head towards the cold, dark pond, pouting as he did. He loved being with his boys, but it would have been so much better to have Ray there. There was no explaining why, but Gavin was very drawn to Ray, and definitely wanted him to merge into their little group. Geoff and Jack were definitely up for the idea and Ryan didn't really seem to have an opinion on it; Michael on the other hand was completely opposed. Sighing, he pulled his shirt over his head and shot Michael a glare

"Shu'up, Michael. It's probably your fault he doesn't like being around us," he mumbled the last part, climbing up onto Ryan's back once they were in the water. Ryan barely even seemed to notice it. They were all shivering, teeth chattering until Michael stepped into the pond, bringing with him a soothing warmth to the water. 

"So what if it is my fault? We don't need someone like  _him_ around us. He's not natural." Michael grunted, knowing he was being extremely horrible and not caring in the slightest. He was too pissed off to give a shit. 

"Oh, yeah, cause our five way relationship is totally  _normal,_ " Geoff argued, rolling his eyes. "You can't fault him for being unnatural, most people would say the exact same thing about us."

" _He_ might say the exact same thing about us," Michael retorted, crossing his arms. Notably, the water was getting significantly warmer by the second, to the point where it was actually hot now. "How do we know he's even interested in a relationship like ours!?"

"We don't." Jack stated plainly, a soft, comforting expression about him. "But we'd still like him to be our friend. I don't think he's getting many other offers for that if I'm honest.

"Well, whatever," Michael grumbled, pouting angrily and turning away from the boys.

"Calm down Michael," Ryan interjected, his monotone voice bringing laughter to Geoff's lips. "You'll kill the wildlife."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((if anyone wants a reference point, i imagine Ray's foster mother to be a lot like Will's mum from the Inbetweeners))


	3. They're Brilliant and I'm Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray's second day at the RT program is perfect, and he even ends up inviting Michael over to his house, the last person he would have expected to be getting close to. When they attempt to bake cookies for Gavin together, things get a little messy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey this hasn't been edited very well so i apologize for any mistakes!

**Ryan's driving. You want a ride? x**

 The buzzing of Ray's phone woke him and he read the text from Gavin through his hazy vision. Like a bullet, he shot out of bed and towards the bathroom, typing out his address and sending it back to Gavin with a 'thanks'. He got ready for school quickly, mostly rushing through his shower and everything else before heading back to his bedroom, throwing on some jeans and a purple shirt, and throwing his pre-packed bag over his shoulder. Rushing downstairs, he shot his mother a quick smile. She was wrapped up tight in a white bathrobe, her black hair hanging in wet tangles around her unmade face. 

"I'm getting a ride with the guys today," he told her, after denying her offer for breakfast. When he glanced out the window, he could clearly see Ryan's black car parked up outside. "They're already here actually..."

"Oh. Well, okay!" His mother smiled. She obviously assumed he was comfortable with these people. She even thought they were his friends, which he guess maybe they were, but very barely. With a proud grin, she followed him over to the front door and opened it for him. "Remember though, we have our meeting with Mr. Burns tonight. I could meet you in his classroom after school." Ray nodded, making a mental note of that. "Have a nice day, Petal." She added, kissing his forehead, and he could almost hear Michael's laughter as he trudged towards the car, face flushed. 

Ray was surprised to see that they had actually left the passenger side available for him, so rather than having to clamber into the crowded back seats, he sat comfortably beside Ryan in the front of the car. 

"Your mum seems nice," Gavin commented as Ryan pulled out and started the short drive to their school. 

"Yeah, she's great." Ray smiled. "So, how'd your trip go last night?" He asked idly, not really interested, but figuring it would spark up some conversation. 

"It was great!" Jack practically yelled before anyone else could speak up. Michael was pouting, squashed against the door by Gavin, and he definitely looked like he had something to say but was rather shockingly managing to hold his tongue. Ray briefly wondered if Geoff had something to do with that. A short and not really awkward silence broke out in the car before Geoff spoke up.

"So, have you boys bought your presents for Gavin yet?" he chuckled at the concerned expression that crossed Michael's face.

"Of course," Jack said pointedly, and Ryan nodded along with him.

"Your birthday coming up, Gavin?" Ray asked quietly, wondering if maybe he was now obliged to buy something for the Brit too.

"Yep. Tomorrow, actually!" Gavin giggled, almost bouncing in his excitement. Despite himself, Ray couldn't help but grin and start running through things in his head that he thought Gavin might like to get. He would do what he could to get Gavin a gift, but just one night wasn't a very long time to think of and buy something; plus he had that meeting tonight. 

It wasn't long before they were parked up and climbing out of the car, running off towards their classes since they were actually a few minutes late (which Ray apologized profusely for). Ray's first class, Chemistry, was spent doing some crazy experiments with Jack by his side. If he was honest, Ray had never been any good at chemistry. More than once during that class, he had spilled something harmful onto his skin and Jack had been there each time to heal him of the painful stings. It was amazing really, with just a touch from Jack's hand, any pain he had felt was gone, and Ray was left staring, mesmerized, while Jack simply shrugged with his friendly smile still plastered to his face. 

Second period was Math with Geoff. The whole lesson turned into a battle between the two of them. Geoff would whisper dumb jokes into Ray's ear and it would be his job to not laugh out loud, then Ray would do the exact same to Geoff. Both of them got in some big trouble and were set detentions for the next day. 

"I have never gotten a detention before," Ray told Geoff on their way out, but he was still grinning. "You're a terrible influence on me."

"My pleasure," Geoff said, and they both laughed.

Power honing class before lunch dragged on a lot. All of the boys were in there with him, but they were obviously a lot more occupied than he was. Matt Hullum, their teacher, did come and sit with Ray quite a lot and tried his best to entertain him, which worked for a while, but then he would have to go off and help the students who could actually participate in the lesson. When lunch finally rolled around, Ray was relieved, heading off to the cafeteria with the boys. He didn't get anything to eat, which didn't go unnoticed by anyone at the table but they all chose not to comment on it; at least not out loud. Through their mind links with Ryan, they had quite the discussion. The best thing about the mind links was that Ryan could link them all to each other as well as himself, meaning everyone could hear each other, however that was pretty exhausting for him. 

 _'Do you think he's okay? Should we say something?'_ Jack's voice was a quiet hum in everybody but Ray's head.

 _'Maybe he had a big breakfast?'_ Geoff interjected, sounding just as concerned as Jack had. 

 _'He didn't eat anything this morning,"_ Ryan told them, having listened internally to Ray's conversation with his mother in the morning. 

 _'Leave him be. If he wanted to eat then he would eat,"_ Michael grumbled and that seemed to put an end to the conversation. Gavin had been keeping Ray occupied in an actual external conversation while the others had discussed his eating habits so that he wouldn't think anything was going on. Luckily, Ray had not suspected a thing. 

When the bell rang, it reminded Ray that his last class of the day would have to be spent with Michael. Fortunately, the redhead didn't do what he'd expected him to and leave without him, but actually hung back while the other guys left. 

"You coming or what?" he spat to Ray who was still sat down simply staring at him. Shaking back to his senses, Ray stood up and grabbed his bag walking to their English class with Michael by his side. They didn't talk on the way there and they didn't talk as they took their seats, side by side. They didn't talk while the teacher explained their work and they didn't talk as they wrote. When Mr. Sorola finally told them to get into pairs to discuss their text, Michael shuffled his desk towards Ray's.

"Listen. I think at this point you and I have only one thing in common," he started, over the loud discussions of the rest of the class. "We both haven't got anything for Gavin."

"Um right. Your point?"

"Any ideas?"

"You've known Gavin for much longer than I have," Ray complained with a sigh. "Does he like cake?"

"Nah."

"Alright...Well, we're not gonna have time to buy him anything so I think we should just make him something. We could like, bake him cookies?"

"Do I look like I bake cookies?"

"I bake cookies. Don't laugh, my mom does it a lot and I help her."

"I'm not laughing," Michael argued, but a grin was spreading across his face and he was obviously suppressing laughter. "Fine, we'll bake him cookies. He'll probably freak out about that too. Good idea."

Ray smiled, for some reason glad that he had impressed Michael. "Alright. You can come over tonight and we'll bake cookies together." He decided and after it really settled in that he had just said that, both him and Michael burst out into loud laughter. 

"Something funny, Jones, Narvaez?" Mr. Sorola said angrily, and they both quickly quietened down and got back to the task; well, not really. They were discussing the cookies, not the work.

"Oh fuck," Ray suddenly said. "I've got a meeting with my mom and Mr. Burns tonight...But I guess it won't be that long. You can probably come to it too." He thought out loud and Michael assured him that that was fine. 

After a long while of Mr. Sorola talking and Ray not really listening, the bell to signal the end of the school day sounded and Michael and Ray wondered off to Mr. Burns' classroom. Michael made sure to text the boys and let them know him and Ray would not be needing a ride home.

 

* * *

 

 

**Going to Ray's. Don't wait up, his mom's driving us. X**

Geoff was very surprised by the text, and when he showed the others, they were just as disbelieving. 

"I thought he bloody hated Ray, what happened?" Gavin wondered, looking slightly disappointed, but they all knew that was because he would be missing Michael and Ray on the ride home. "Still, I suppose it's good they're bonding."

"What if they're not?" Geoff suggested wearily. "What if Michael's just going to be an asshole? Ray wouldn't say no, he's a nice kid..."

"He's nice Geoff, but he's also an asshole. If you were in his head, you'd know all about it," Ryan chuckled, heading towards his car with the others in tow. "I think him and Michael will get along just fine once they know each other. They're very similar, actually."

"Well, I hope you're right." Geoff said with a sigh.

 

* * *

 

 

When Ray's mother showed up at Mr. Burns' class to see both Ray and Michael waiting there she looked a little baffled.

"Is it alright for Michael to come over tonight?" Ray asked quickly, diminishing her confusion which she replaced with a beaming smile. 

"Of course! Would you like to stay the night Michael?" she asked him, in an accent that reminded Michael of Gavin's. He briefly wondered why Ray didn't sound like that before remembering what Ryan had told them about Ray's  _foster_ mother.   _  
_

"If that wouldn't be too much trouble-" he started, but was cut off by her.

"No trouble at all!" She grinned at him before taking a seat in front of Mr. Burns' desk, where he was sat watching the three of them with an almost proud smile. 

"Clearly, Ray's doing a lot better on the RT program," he started. "Hello Ma'am. Nice to see you again," he shook Ray's mother's hand across the desk before shuffling some papers in his hands. "I've got some comments from Ray's teachers right here. He seems to be doing pretty well, but there was a problem in Math I see? Got into some trouble talking to Geoff Ramsey too much."

His mother glanced over at him with a disapproving face. "I'm glad you're making friends Petal, but there's a time and a place."

"Indeed," Mr. Burns nodded, turning his smile to a concerned, cold glance. "It's good you've finally got yourself a group of friends but..." his gaze flickered over to Michael. "Michael, could you step outside for a moment? This is a personal matter." 

Raising his hands in a defensive apology, Michael stood and left the room, waiting against the wall outside. 

"As I was saying," Mr. Burns continued. "It's great to see you've made some friends, but maybe you've made the wrong sort...I'm not sure Geoff Ramsey and his buddies are very good for you Ray, and I'm only saying that because I'm worried about you." 

"Well it's nice of you to worry, but you don't need to. It was just an isolated incident, it won't happen again," Ray assured, glancing at the door. No, he wasn't going to start ignoring the only friends he'd ever had because maybe they weren't such a great influence on him. 

"Ray, I'm just saying, you need to work a lot harder than they do. Without a power, things are going to be very difficult for you in later life, so you'll need outstanding grades, and I think these boys will only hold you back. You've seen their abilities. All of them are brilliant." His teacher explained, looking sympathetic but with every word, Ray only got more and more pissed off.

"Right. They're all brilliant and I'm not, I get it, but they're my friends. My  _only_ friends." Ray told him slowly and pointedly, refusing to back down from his point. His mother seemed vaguely concerned, but she didn't want to say anything that would upset either side. 

"Well, if the behaviour in your Math class continues or worsens, we will have to looking into separating you from them. I'm only thinking in your best interest, Ray, and I'm sure your mother agrees." 

"Yeah, thanks a bunch." Ray said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he left the room in a miserable strop, his mother close behind him. He decided that maybe he didn't like Mr. Burns so much anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

Once they were back home (after stopping off at Michael's so he could pack an overnight bag), the meeting with Mr. Burns was long forgotten and Ray quickly headed off to the kitchen, explaining to his mother that he and Michael planned to bake Gavin some cookies for his birthday.

"How sweet!" She exclaimed giddily, rummaging through cupboards and getting out everything they would need. "You remember how to do it, right?" 

"Of course," Ray assured, and his mother left the two of them to get to baking alone while she watched one of her shows in the living room. Ray started running through the recipe with Michael who looked positively baffled by the entire procedure and Ray could not help but laugh at him. He went on to measure out the right amount of all their ingredients while Michael sat on the counter and watched Ray's very precise method. Very suddenly, he handed Michael a glass bowl with the right measurements of sugar and butter along with a large fork. "We don't have a whisk, so you're gonna have to use this. Just mix it all up till it's kinda light and fluffy. It's a little difficult, you'll need to put your back into it." He explained, absentmindedly cracking eggs into a separate bowl. 

"Why you gotta give me the tough jobs?" He complained, but he started to stir the mixture none the less. He realised quickly it was gonna take a little effort to get this to be 'light' and 'fluffy' as Ray had said. 

"Because you're just  _so_   _strong_!" Ray mocked, grinning over at him. 

"Well, you're not wrong!"

After a long while of vigorous mixing and Ray adding bits and pieces to Michael's bowl, the concoction was apparently complete. The main things Michael remembered Ray adding were chocolate chips and chopped hazelnut, which Michael had told him were Gavin's favourite. He spread some round sections of the mixture on to two separate baking trays and went to slide them into the oven, which they had turned on when they'd first entered the kitchen. 

"Hey, let's not waste time," Michael decided, focusing his energy towards the first tray. Immediately it set alight and Ray sprung into action quickly, dousing the tray with the glass of water he had beside him with an angry yell of Michael's name. "Oh shit!" Michael laughed, as Ray stopped the fire, almost falling to the floor with how shockingly funny that had been. 

"Michael, you asshole, you ruined a whole batch!" Ray scolded him, but soon enough he was laughing too, and they were both leaning on each other for support. "You're so fucking stupid." He told him, moving away slightly and readying another load of ingredients, which Michael then spent another 20 minutes stirring up. This time, he decided he would not burn this load to a crisp and let Ray put the two trays into the oven. Now came the boring part of waiting for them to cook. They both sat quietly on the counter beside each other for a while before Ray had an idea. He grabbed the bag of flour and handed it to Michael, who took it from him with a confused expression before his face was shoved straight into it. Ray quickly jumped off of the counter, away from Michael, laughing loudly, hunched over. Bringing his head up, Michael puffed out a mouthful of flour, which also now covered his entire face.

"Oh, you're going down, boy!" He yelled, a grin on his powdery face as he grabbed a handful of flour and ran at Ray with it, throwing it over his head. It wasn't long before the both of them were practically covered in the stuff. Michael had Ray tackled to the ground, trying to smother his face with flour but Ray was putting up a pretty decent fight. 

"Don't! Michael don't be a bitch-!" He was cut off by a mouthful of flour, which he coughed around for a while, Michael watching him and laughing profusely. 

 "Petal?" Ray's mom called, poking her head around the door and giggling when she saw the pair of them, sprawled out side by side on the floor covered in flour. The kitchen was also a mess, but she didn't seem to care at all and Michael couldn't help but think how much of an awesome mom she was that this didn't bother her. "Have fun." She told them simply, returning to her living room while laughing to herself. It did become obvious to Michael that she had probably come to check on them because she thought he was actually being aggressive towards Ray, but he ignored this. 

Soon enough, the cookies were ready, and Ray let Michael get them out of the oven. He was about to offer him oven gloves before he turned around to find Michael holding the baking hot trays in his bare hands and shook his head, laughing. Michael set the cookies out on plates and Ray told him they'd have to leave them there to cool. So, the two of them went off upstairs to Ray's room. 

"Dude, I guess we should shower," Michael said, looking down at himself. 

"Yeah," Ray laughed. "No shit." He lead him to the bathroom and told him to go first, heading back to his bedroom and trying to not touch anything or move around too much. When Michael walked in, towel loosely wrapped around his waist and his hair dripping wet, Ray had a really huge problem stopping himself from staring. He could just about see that 'V' leading down to-

Ray fled the room, almost running for the shower and Michael watched him go, confused for only a moment before he let a pompous smirk form on his face. He had forgotten that Ray  _wasn't_ actually one of his boys yet, and wandering around his house like this was not exactly normal, but  _that_ reaction was the cutest thing he could have ever imagined. He couldn't wait to tell the guys about this. Literally, he couldn't wait; he shot Gavin a text assuming they'd all be together at one of their houses. 

**Hey, just showered at Ray's, walked into his room in just a towel and he ran off all blushing and cute. I think he definitely wants in on our relationship. Maybe he just doesn't really know it yet. Sorry I was such an asshole last night by the way; Ray's fucking great. X**

 

 

* * *

 

 

"Well, you weren't wrong about Michael and Ray," Gavin told Ryan, who he was currently snuggled up in his bed with while Geoff and Jack were playing video games, sitting just at the end of the bed they were sprawled out across. They had grown bored of watching while they waited, and went to making out on the bed. When Gavin's phone had vibrated in his pocket with the text from Michael, they'd had to pull away however reluctant they both were. "Apparently, Ray's already a blushing mess over Michael." He giggled and Ryan smirked, pulling him closer.

"Told you," he commented.

"Well, boys, looks like we might be getting a sixth," Geoff said, grinning while Jack smiled in contentment at the idea. Gavin squeaked in delight, smashing his lips against Ryan's to celebrate.

"Hey, hey," Ryan mumbled, gently pushing Gavin away. "Don't be so certain. Just cause he's getting a little close with Michael, that does not in anyway mean he'd be okay with a fucking six-way relationship. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

 

 


	4. A Lot Can Change In Two Months

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two months after joining the RT program, Ray has changed so much, his own mother barely even recognizes him. But maybe that's not actually a good thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning, caleb is mean i'm sorry i needed someone to bully ray

"Do you think, maybe," Gavin started, not really sure how he wanted to word his question but knowing he needed to put it out there. It was eleven o'clock and all of them were cuddling in Gavin's bed. He knew the boys wanted to go to sleep, but he wanted to get his question of his chest. "We should tell Ray we're all together?"

A brief silence settled over the group and Geoff seemed to pull Gavin a little closer to him, squeezing him just that little bit tighter than he had been before. As was expected, he was the one to speak for the group.

"If you wanna do that, then yeah, we can, but I don't know how he's gonna take it Gav," Geoff warned quietly, not wanting Gavin to be hurt by whatever reaction Ray would give. Not many people reacted well to finding out the five of them were in a relationship with each other. It wasn't conventional, sometimes it wasn't particularly convenient and it wasn't  _normal_ but it was love, and there was nothing they could do about that. If ever they needed an example of them coming out going badly, they always thought back to Michael's father. That had been ugly, but luckily he was gone now, and they never spoke about it. 

"That's true...Maybe we should wait a bit longer," Gavin thought aloud.

"I say we just let it happen naturally," Jack suggested, clearly halfway between sleep and involvement in the conversation at hand. 

"That would be the best way," Ryan agreed, and Geoff and Gavin were nodding along with him, all of them slowly drifting off to sleep while they settled their discussion. 

 

* * *

 

 

Putting aside the incident Ray had when Michael had entered his room all wet and steamy in nothing but a towel, the two of them stayed up into the early hours on the next morning before realising they should really get some rest for school that day. It was four am when they went to bed. It was  _eight_ am when the irritating buzz of Ray's phone finally woke him up. 

 

> **7:47 AM- Gavin**
> 
> **Ray! We're outside :) X**
> 
> **7:52 AM- Gavin**
> 
> **Are you guys still asleep? X**
> 
> **7: 58 AM- Gavin**
> 
> **Ryan says he's gonna leave if you don't get down here soon! :( X**
> 
> **8:00 AM- Gavin**
> 
> **Hurry up! X**

"Ah, fuck," Ray mumbled, typing out his reply of 'we'll be one minute, happy birthday Gavin'. He didn't move for a couple seconds, simply staring over at Michael who seemed in an unusual state of tranquility; his face held none of the anger it usually did when he was awake. He didn't have much time to admire this though, reaching over and poking Michael's shoulder until he woke up. Instantly, he looked pissed off. 

"Ugh, why did we stay up so long?" He huffed, sitting up too quickly and dizzying himself which Ray chuckled quietly at.

"I dunno man, but those assholes are here so we better get going," Ray told him, standing up and grabbing some clean clothes, heading off to the bathroom to change. Michael watched him as he went with a small smirk and shook his head in contentment; Ray was calling them  _'those assholes'_. Now that had to show some fondness, as strange as that may sound. 

Once they were both ready (or as ready as they could be in two minutes) they made a mad dash downstairs. Ray's mother was up, sipping two and she grinned when she saw the two of them, but was taken aback by Ray's yelling. He complained that she did not wake them earlier, and cursed himself internally for not remembering to set an alarm  _again_. His mother put down her mug of tea and headed over to the kitchen counter, handing Ray a plastic container with a green lid and a neatly tied, black, silk bow. 

"The cookies you boys baked," she explained, offering an apoplectic smile. "I was going to wake you, but you both looked so peaceful. I'm sorry Petal." She kissed his forehead and gave Michael a little wave as they headed off out the door together and scrambled into the back of Ryan's car, since Gavin was sitting in the passenger seat today. Ryan was driving away before Michael had even closed the door.

"About time, assholes!" Geoff scolded them, rolling his eyes. "Why were you so late?"

"Sorry," Michael mumbled, with no other response for Geoff's criticizing gaze, so instead, he turned it on Ray. Luckily though, Ray was a little more prepared. 

"I'm really sorry. We were just up really late making these for somebody," Ray grinned, holding up the large container of cookies. He hadn't even noticed, but his mom had added a small gift tag that said 'Gavin' in fancy lettering. 

"No fuckin' way..." Geoff mumbled as Gavin turned around in his seat with an enthusiastic smile which got even bigger, though Ray didn't know how that was possible, when he laid eyes on the homemade treats. 

"Happy birthday Gavin," Ray said, handing the box to Gavin who took them appreciatively, giggling and practically bouncing in his seat. That seemed to irritate Ryan a little, but if it did, he didn't comment. "From both of us," Ray added, gently nudging Michael with a smile who tossed the grin right back to him. 

"Thank you so much! Oh, you guys are the best!" Gavin yelled, wanting to squeeze both of them in a tight hug, but he sadly could not in the confines of Ryan's car. This was already turning out to be one of his best birthdays purely because he was spending it with his boys, all of them, including Ray now. 

Once they arrived at school, Gavin spent a long time hugging Michael and Ray and thanking them over and over again, and all throughout the day he kept asking for more stories about how they made the cookies, and at lunch, the group ate every last one and they were all absolutely delicious, and Gavin nearly exploded with joy when he tasted hazelnuts in the cookies, and his whole birthday was just a muddle of school and Michael and Ray and cookies and hazelnuts and  _his boys._ He couldn't have asked for anything more perfect than something so simple. Then he couldn't help but think the same thing about Ray. 

That night, they all went over to Geoff's again, and Gavin had Ray and Michael teach them how to make the cookies. So, the six of them spent the night baking and throwing flour at each other like idiots until Ray's mom came to pick him up. Jack left for home shortly afterwards and Ryan offered him a ride home. Gavin and Michael stayed over at Geoff's house that night, since they didn't have much to go home to, so obviously, Gavin had a  _very_ wonderful night. Yes, he thought, this was the best birthday he'd had and mainly because of Ray. Gavin thought, and they all knew, that Ray was going to change them an awful lot. Hopefully, for the better.

 

* * *

 

 

Just two months after joining the RT program, Ray's life was already miles better than it had ever been. Not only did he have his boys, he'd actually made some other friends on top of that in the very few classes he had without any of the guys. Barbara Dunkelman and Meg Turney were the two friends he'd made in his Art class. Their teacher was extremely lenient in that class, and let the kids run wild with their imaginations which usually lead to Meg throwing together a patchy, but somehow amazing dress out of the fabrics she could find and Barbara painting some ridiculous pictures of Ray and the boys. Ray always decided to simply sit back and chat with them, which no one really cared about. Over the past two months, Ray had gotten a lot closer with his boys, enough so that he  _did_  now call them  _his_ boys, a habit he had picked up from Michael and Gav.  _  
_

"You know," Barbara started, looking away from her absurd painting of Michael and Gavin in a boxing ring to stare at Ray with an almost mischievous grin. "You totally flirt with the guys."

Meg moved her hands up away from her sewing machine so quickly that Ray jolted in his seat, worried she'd stabbed herself. "Oh my gosh, I thought the exact same thing!" She confirmed Barbara's point, nodding her head and giggling along with the blonde girl. 

Ray had talked to Barb and Meg enough now that the fact that he was gay had come up in one of their previous conversations. He thought for a moment that it was only because they knew this that they assumed his behaviour around his boys was flirting before he decided not to bother lying. He knew he flirted with them, Michael in particular. He was so comfortable around them now that he just couldn't help his occasional suggestive comment or unnecessary touching; plus they were hot. He figured it was okay to think that. He didn't think they would mind much. 

"Yeah, I know," Ray said, joining in when the girls started to laugh. 

"You know, when I first met you, you were so shy and now look at you," Barbara giggled, lightly punching Ray in the arm and her clothing slowly shifted to the hue of Gavin's green hoodie that Ray just so happened to be wearing. 

"I was only shy 'cause I didn't know anyone. I'd never even had friends back then Barb," Ray told her, still chuckling lightly. "Getting a group of friends changes a guy, especially those assholes."

"Well, you're not wrong," the blonde replied, her smile shifting slightly. "They are assholes."

For a moment, Ray only stared at her, truly baffled. He knew for a fact Barbara was friends with all the guys, as was Meg. Why did she suddenly look so serious over Ray's playful nicknaming? "What do you mean?"

"Them. Don't get me wrong, I love them!" Barb clarified, looking at Ray slightly panicked. "But..." 

"We love them," Meg interrupted her thought. "But they really are assholes. They think they're better than everyone else, and sure, maybe their powers are but they aren't. Some people don't like that," the redhead shrugged and smiled at Ray, continuing on with her sewing. Ray considered what she had said. It was true, they did sort of act as though they were the superiors of the school, something Ray simply went along with, and he could see how that would give people the wrong impression. Truly, Ray didn't think they thought themselves any better than Meg and Barb or maybe most other kids on the RT program. They wouldn't have wanted Ray to destroy their image if that was true. But they definitely did think they were superior to some on the program. He knew, because when he walked with them in the halls, he adopted their air or superiority. He had become just like them; but Ray didn't think that was a bad thing. 

"I guess I get what you mean," Ray nodded slowly, leaning back on his chair. "But at least they're hot." Again, they burst out laughing, and Barbara had accidentally smudged her new painting of Michael and Gav. She cursed Ray for it. 

"But you totally have a crush on Michael right?" Barb asked him, shaking her head at him, still disappointed about her painting. Honestly, he had to consider this for a moment. He flirted with Michael a lot. Like, a lot. He guessed maybe he did feel a little more for him than just friendship, which was the last thing he would have expected on his first day here. Michael used to despise Ray and the feeling was almost mutual before that night they spent together, baking cookies and flour fighting. 

"I don't know, I mean maybe," Ray shrugged as nonchalantly as possible. 

"Yeah, you do," Meg nodded slowly, smiling but not looking up from the fabrics she was sewing. Quickly, Barbara painted a pink heart around Michael's head on her picture, since it was already ruined anyway, and Ray laughed, rolling his eyes. Maybe he did have a  _little_ crush on Michael. 

 

In their Drama class that day, a lesson that Ray had with all of his boys, he decided that yeah, he definitely had a crush on Michael. Joel Heyman, their ridiculously funny teacher who had insisted they call him Joel rather than the overly formal 'Mr. Heyman', had asked them to pair up and Ray had instantly latched onto Michael's arm, which the other boys laughed at. Geoff and Jack stuck together as usual, leaving Gavin and Ryan. They all ended up in opposite corners of the room since Joel did not trust the six of them to get anything done as a group. Leaving Ray with Michael however, lead to no work whatsoever, and all messing around and flirting very obviously. Ray ended up sat on the floor with Michael, tracing the tattoos on his arm that he knew he was not supposed to have. 

"Where'd you get these done?" Ray muttered, over the noise of the busy classroom. 

"Geoff." Michael said with a grin at Ray's shocked expression. 

"Dude, you trusted him to do that?" Ray asked in disbelief, staring at Michael. 

"'Course. He's Geoff," Michael chuckled, shrugging it off. Ray was still amazed at the trust Michael had for the older, but he didn't comment on it again. He still found the whole trust thing a little difficult, but he was comfortable around his boys now, and he figured the rest would come in it's own time. 

Suddenly, completely out of the blue, Ray felt a searing pain in his chest, and he doubled over, groaning in pain. It was a weird pain that he'd never felt before, like someone was pulling at his insides, trying to get them  _out_. He could vaguely feel Michael pulling him close and barely hear him asking what was going on, but the pain was making everything around him numb. There were different hands on him suddenly, forcing him to sit up, and seeing Gavin's concerned eyes almost made everything okay but it still fucking _hurt_. It was only when Jack finally came to his rescue that the dull pain went away and he sucked in a sharp breath. Gavin and Michael were holding him tightly.

"What the fuck was that?" Geoff said loudly, looking around the room in a blind panic. Joel was also there, kneeling in front of Ray and trying to ensure his safety. 

"It was him," Ryan muttered, glaring across the room at a group of boys, specifically one of them. Caleb. The boy with the power to inflict pain just by looking at someone. Really, Ray would think that someone with such an impressive power should be a part of this group of talented boys, but he didn't know that they had rejected him in the past. He was mean, not someone they wanted to be associated with and the first time he had even spoken to them, he had upset Gavin, which didn't settle well with the boys. 

"What the fuck, Caleb!?" Michael yelled, getting up onto his feet and glaring at the boy across the room. In seconds, the sleeve of his jacket went up in flames. Caleb yelled loudly before Joel, who was a water elemental, fixed that situation and shot a glare Michael's way. It was a strange expression to see on his normally kind and welcoming face. 

"Michael Jones," he scolded angrily. "We do not use our powers in this class!"

"Yeah, tell that to him!" Michael yelled at the teacher, pointing rudely in Caleb's direction, who was slacking off his blackened jacket angrily. "Ray never did anything to him!"

"I wanted to see if powers worked on him, since he's the freak without the power right?" Caleb stated in his own defense and Joel sighed loudly in exasperation, turning his angry gaze on him. 

"Caleb-" Joel began but was promptly cut off by Geoff Ramsey, who sounded more infuriated with the boy than even Michael was. 

"What the fuck did you just call him!?" He yelled, his voice breaking unevenly from the strain of being so mad; it wasn't a sound he was used to. Geoff was generally calm, friendly and just plain fun. 

If this had happened to Ray two months ago, he probably would have just ignored it until a teacher intervened and got the kid to leave him alone. He would have braved it, accepting the pain and welcoming their horrible nicknames. But he was stronger now. His boys had made him that way. "Hey Caleb," he started, surprising everyone. "I don't mean to sound rude, but are you a complete fucking idiot?"

Michael and Gavin burst into laughter, Geoff chuckled and Ryan smirked. It was only Jack who seemed a little concerned about where this would go if no one intervened. Luckily, they never got to find out. 

"Enough boys!" Joel shouted, a sound that no one in the room was used to, but Geoff seemed unfazed as he took control of Caleb's body, forcing him to slap himself in the face over and over while Gavin and Michael pointed and laughed loudly at him. Ray thought, maybe now, he was seeing what Barb and Meg meant about them  _knowing_ they were better than everybody else. _  
_

"Why you hitting yourself?" Geoff asked, joining Michael and Gav in their fit of giggles.

"Boys!" Joel shouted again, clearly exasperated. God, he hated dealing with the boys and their superior powers. 

_He despised it._

But he couldn't do anything about that, not just yet anyway. 

Eventually, Geoff did stop, but their laughter only grew louder and louder. 

"That's enough now. Michael, Caleb, Ray, all three of you better march on down to Mr. Burns." Joel told them sternly, walking over to his class phone and calling Burnie on his. He would let him know why the boys were there. 

"Joel, wait, Ray didn't do anything-" Jack tried to argue in Ray's defense, but the teacher only hushed him as he greeted Burnie on the other end of the line, informing him of the situation as the three boys left the room with their heads down. 

  _"Don't worry too much about it Joel,"_ Burnie told him over the phone.  _"It'll all be ready soon enough."_

A grin spread on Joel's face before he could stop it, but he quickly tried to keep his thoughts under control as he saw Ryan Haywood, the mind reader boy, giving him curious looks and almost felt him trying to latch onto his mind. "I know. Thanks Burnie." He said, quickly hanging up the phone. "Right! On with the class!"

 

* * *

 

 

Burnie had Ray's mom on the phone as the three of them entered his classroom and sat down in front of his desk after being signaled to do so. 

"Hello Miss Clare," he greeted politely and Ray thought his heart stopped upon hearing his mother's name. Michael tried to give him a comforting smile but Ray was practically frozen in place. His mom would be so disappointed. He dreaded to see how upset she would be. He didn't want to upset his mom; she had done too much for him. "It's Mr. Burns." A pause. "Well, actually, everything's not okay, I'm calling about Ray obviously. He had a little bit of trouble in class with a boy named Caleb, and uh, big shocker. Michael Jones." Another pause and Ray was holding his breath now. "Please, Miss, calm down, it's the end of the day soon anyway, so if you wouldn't mind coming in for a moment? That's great, thank you Miss Clare, I'll see you soon." When he hung up the phone, Ray finally took a sharp intake of breath and Michael's hand was suddenly on his, warm and comforting as Burnie called Caleb's father and invited him also. There were a few phone calls made for Michael but apparently no one was around to answer them and Mr. Burns had to give up when Ray's mom and Caleb's dad walked through the door. 

Ray's mom honestly looked devastated. She had never been called in for anything negative involving Ray before and she honestly never expected to be. No one seemed to notice Michael and Ray's hands, interlocked and squeezing tight. Caleb's father only looked irritated. 

"Thank you both for coming," Mr. Burns said before shaking hands with them both. "Now from what I was told, I can gather that Michael and Caleb were using their powers against each other in Drama class. As you'll both know, it's strictly forbidden to use powers other than in Power Honing class, unless it can't be prevented of course, but Michael and Caleb are both very competent and very able."

"Caleb used his powers on Ray," Michael argued, sticking up for himself without a care for the consequences. 

"Well, I'm certain he didn't do that unprovoked," Mr. Burns, said, turning his glare on Ray. "You're grades are going downhill and now your attitude too?"

"Oh Ray," his mom almost squeaked, covering her mouth with her hand. 

The rest of their little meeting went pretty much the same as that, with almost all of the blame being placed on Michael and Ray. Caleb walked away with zero punishment while Ray got a week of detention and Michael got three weeks. Again, Burnie had raised the point that he would be separating the boys from Ray if this continued and his mother had completely agreed this time. As they left the classroom and walked out into the parking lot, Michael and Ray had walked behind Ray's mom, still refusing to let go of each others hands until they spotted the boys. They dropped their hands and ran over to their boys, Ray hugging Jack straight away and thanking him for curing him of that awful pain in Drama class. Michael held Gavin tight, who was pouting angrily at how the situation had panned out. 

"You coming over, buddy?" Geoff asked Ray quietly with a forced smile. 

"No. Not tonight," said the voice of Ray's mother, startling everybody. She'd come out of nowhere. "Come on, Petal. We should get home."

 

* * *

 

 

Ray didn't want to be at home. He washed the dishes and he cleaned up the kitchen. He vacuumed the stairs, as his mother had given him a longer list of chores as punishment, and he did the laundry.  Ray practically did everything before making his mother a hot cup of green tea, handing it to her and hoping he could escape to his bedroom rather than have to watch her shows. He figured they should be over by now anyways. 

 "Petal," his mother started, a seriousness to her tone that he did not like one bit. "No X-box tonight."

"Wait, mom, no," Ray complained quickly. "You already gave me extra chores and didn't let me go out, this isn't fair?"

"I said no," she told him sternly. She clearly wasn't changing her mind so he trudged upstairs angrily and curled up in his bed, checking his phone. 

> **5:46 PM- Michael**
> 
> **You okay, Ray?**
> 
>  
> 
> **5:49 PM- Geoff**
> 
> **Hey buddy, miss you lots. Come over tomorrow, okay? Not the same without you.**
> 
>  
> 
> **6:20 PM- Gavin**
> 
> **Never thought Mr. Burns was such a prick. Really sorry Ray. We all miss you! X**

Ray couldn't help but grin at his texts. His boys were all fantastic, and it was a great way to cheer him up. He replied to all of them quickly and actually spent the rest of the night right up til one am texting them and looking through the stupid photos he had of the guys on his phone. He got stuck on one particular picture he had of all six of them. It was Jack who had taken the picture, his arm outstretched, holding the phone at an angle that got all of them into the frame. He was pulling a stupid, confused face and Geoff was sitting behind him with his middle finger up. Ryan had his eyes closed and looked like he was sighing and Gavin had his arms wrapped around Ryan's neck. His grin lit up the whole photo. Just beside Gavin was Michael, who had pulled Ray onto his lap with a triumphant grin and Ray was caught mid-laughter.

Ray fell asleep staring at that picture of them, reliving the moment over and over in his head.  


	5. All For Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray disobeys his mom to go out and see his boys. He gets up close and personal with Michael, but Meg and Barbara are worried. Michael's incredible power and Ray's lack thereof concerns them of Michael's true motives in his pursuit of their friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING- for a brief mention of self harming
> 
> the song used in this chapter is Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran :)
> 
> enjoy!

Luckily, the next day was a Saturday, so Ray didn't have to wake up early. However, his mother decided it'd be a super fun idea to get him out of bed at 9:30am anyway.  
"Come on, Petal, I've made you breakfast," she told him, shaking him gently as he groaned and shuffled around, finally sitting up and checking his phone. Gavin, as he usually did on a Saturday, had invited him out; today they were apparently going to get drunk by the pond. Obviously, Ray wouldn't be drinking, but his boys were hilarious drunk, so he still wanted to go with them.

"Mom, can I go out and meet the guys later?"

"No, not today. We have a lot to do, Grandma's coming over!" She hesitated a little over the last part. Clearly, she was still trying to punish Ray for yesterday; Grandma  _never_ came over by her own accord. His mom had invited her to stop Ray from leaving the house, and he was thoroughly pissed about that.

"Seriously? You're still mad at me? I'll be sure not to get attacked next time then, huh." Ray muttered. The whole thing barely even had anything to do with him, but somehow he and Michael had gotten into the most trouble. Probably because for some unknown reason, Mr. Burns had made out like Ray provoked Caleb and honestly, he didn't think he'd ever spoken to Caleb in his life before yesterdays incident. 

"You provoked him Ray, and if I let you out with your friends just a day later, what kind of mother would I be? You'd never learn your lesson."

"Yeah, right." Ray rolled his eyes, choosing not to argue with her about it. She was a wonderful woman, but she would never believe him over Mr. Burns. Leaving him to get ready, Ray's mom went back downstairs at the sound of the doorbell, with a small chime about how that must be Grandma and Ray groaned out loud again. It's not that he didn't  _like_ seeing his Grandma, but he desperately wanted to go out today. In a hurry to get this over and done with, he got up, grabbed some clean clothes from his closet and headed to the bathroom where he showered quickly and got out to dry himself. He caught a glimpse of his body in the mirror and cringed. Scars laced his arms like tattoos that he never wanted. Rapidly looking away, he dressed with a small sigh, concealing his arms with his purple hoodie as he always did. 

When he went downstairs, sure enough, there was his Grandma, sat at the table in the kitchen opposite his mother. Both of them were sipping cups of coffee and there was a cup along with a plate of food set out for Ray. He took his seat and gratefully began to eat. 

"Good morning, Ray," his Grandma said, her red coated lips accentuating each word. She sounded just as patronizing and judgmental as ever, raking her eyes over him with a scowl disguised as a smile. Ray really did love her, but it was very difficult to. 

"Morning Grandma," he said politely after swallowing his mouthful of food. "Did you have a nice journey here?" 

"It was pleasant." She commented rather vaguely. For a woman of fifty-three, she certainly didn't look it. His mom and Grandma were very young, he knew that, but it was only because he'd been fostered. Originally, his mother had told him, she didn't want to have kids until she was twenty-seven, but now here she was, thirty years old with a teenage son. "Your mummy told me what happened yesterday in school." 

They both shared their accents with Gavin, except on Gavin it was cute and welcoming. On his Grandma, it was crude and dare he say  _evil_. It made his mom sound friendly. For a moment, he began to wonder if it wasn't the accent making his Grandma seem unkind, since it seemed to work a charm on Gavin and his mom, but he figured he better answer her. 

"Yeah. I didn't mean for that to happen."

"You shouldn't provoke the other children Ray; they're much  _stronger_ than you are."  _They're much better than you are,_  Ray knew she had wanted to say, but she wouldn't dare. "Isn't that so Marie?" 

Ray's mom gave him a sympathetic smile before nodding slowly. "She is right Petal, you should be a bit more careful with them. Especially those boys you're hanging around with now, they've all got very impressive powers. I wouldn't want to see you get hurt."

"New friends then Ray?" His Grandma interjected immediately after hearing her daughter speak of the boys. As reluctant as he was to speak of his boys to her, Ray knew there was no avoiding it really. 

"Yeah. They're really nice." He said briefly, stuffing more food into his mouth and hoping that would stop her from asking more questions. It didn't. She continued to interrogate him on the extent of Michael's fire abilities, Ryan's mind links and the likes right up until she had finished her coffee. By that time, Ray had given up on breakfast, having only eaten a very small portion of it, and his untouched coffee had gone cold. 

"Why don't you clean up for your mother Ray?" she more or less ordered him. 

"Yes, Grandma," Ray kept up his polite tone, not wanting to start any arguments. Hoping he wouldn't have to speak with her again today, he did as his Grandma told him. 

"He doesn't eat much does he, your Ray? He's going to get so scrawny dear, you don't want  _that._ "

Ray really did love his Grandma. She didn't make it very easy to do so. 

 

* * *

 

 

Gavin had been pouting and sulking all day about not getting a reply from Ray. It was starting to grate on Michael's nerves and it was putting Ryan in a particular bad mood, having to listen to Gavin's internal whining  _and_ his external complaints.

"Gavin, he's probably really busy today," Jack tried to assure him, a little annoyed, but only because he just wanted everyone to cheer up a little. The boys weren't too fun to be around when they were like this. 

"Busy doing what Jack? I don't want to sound mean but... Ray doesn't have any other friends..." Gavin said quietly, playing with his phone and frowning. 

"Meg and Barbara. He's probably out with Meg and Barbara," Geoff reminded him blankly, focused on playing Peggle more than he was on joining their conversation. 

"Well why would he want to be out with them when he could be out with us?" Gavin whined, resting his head in Jack's lap.

"Jesus Christ, Gavin, shut the fuck up!" Michael complained loudly, making Geoff jump a bit. "We all wanna see Ray, alright!?"

"Oh, whatever," the miserable Brit mumbled, but he kept to himself after that. Obviously, that didn't help their mind reader's mood much. 

"Can you keep your thoughts down?" Ryan asked through gritted teeth. 

"No, Ryan, I can't." 

"Oh, stop it, all of you," Geoff said decidedly, quitting his game and looking back at all of them. He shook his head and checked the time on his watch to find they had already wasted half the day bitching and whining. "It's 6 o'clock. Should we start heading down to the pond?" 

Simultaneously, but silently, all the boys agreed, getting up and heading downstairs to grab their shoes and jackets. With a frown, Geoff grabbed their beers from the fridge and shoved them into a picnic bag, giving it to Michael, whom he considered to be the strongest since his power was very physically demanding. 

They all piled into Ryan's car and the painful silence continued for the whole journey. It followed them down to pond, where they sat in the moonlight and watched the ripples as Michael chucked some rocks into the shiny water. No one said a word as Geoff passed beers around and they all cracked them open (save for Ryan, who had a diet coke instead as he refused to drink. It often messed with his wavelengths, and made the boy's thoughts a lot louder and harder to jumble through) and it remained quiet as they all drank. 

That's exactly how they stayed until Jack spotted the purple flash of Ray's recognizable hoodie approaching over the hill. 

"Gavin, look who's here!" He exclaimed gleefully, pointing over to Ray, who was now mere steps away with a grin on his face and a bag in his hand. 

"Ray!" Gavin yelled, giddily running to Ray and wrapping his arms around him tightly. He smelled of beer already, but Ray didn't mind much. So he just laughed and cuddled the Brit. 

"Hey, relax man, it's just me, not Jennifer Lawrence," he joked, pushing Gavin away after a moment and greeting the others.

"Thank God, I honestly thought Gav was gonna spend the rest of the night sulking," Michael said with a smirk, inviting Ray to sit with him, which he did, placing himself in between Michael's legs and leaning his head back against his chest. "Well, hello, Ray." He joked in a low, silky voice. 

Ray rolled his eyes and took the beers that he'd taken from his fridge out of the bag he had brought along with him. "Thought you guys might want these. Didn't want to turn up empty handed."

"Aren't you just the cutest," Geoff told him, passing out the beers Ray had provided. 

"I know," he grinned, pulling Michael's arms around so that he would cuddle him and felt Michael laugh rather than heard it. "Sorry I was late, I had to sneak out. My Grandma's at our place."

"Ohh, look at you, rebellious little thing!" Michael laughed, as did the boys. Ray smiled, though there was a little blush that he was hoping to pass off as it being too cold. It had taken a long time for him to make the decision to just climb out of his window and go. His mother and Grandma had been downstairs at the time, talking about how Ray's grades were slipping, and he had managed to steal some drinks from their fridge before he made his escape. God, did he feel guilty. He felt terrible for his mother. After everything she had done for him. But he just couldn't help it. No way was he staying there and listening to them insult him like he wasn't even there, and he wanted to see his boys so badly anyway. 

A few beers later, and everything was just as normal. Some playful name calling, Gavin had tried to wrestle Ryan and ended up shoved into the freezing cold pond, and Michael and Ray had spent the whole night flirting. Michael's drunk flirting was Ray's favourite kind of flirting. It wasn't even  _nearly_ subtle. Ryan had Gavin wrapped up in his jacket, cuddling him close, Geoff was resting his head on Jack's shoulder and Michael still had his arms around Ray, who was resting between his legs. Honestly, the boys wondered how Ray hadn't caught onto their relationship yet, or at least assumed that some of them were dating. 

While the other boys got on with their drunken antics, Michael had his mind set on one thing. He was going to kiss Ray tonight. As Ray spent a moment to talk about something that Michael wasn't listening to, he moved his head down and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. When the only response he got was a giggle, he moved round, kissing just next to Ray's lips with a smile. Ray was still giggling, but he pushed Michael's face away gently. Yeah, he liked him quite a lot, but he wasn't just gonna let him kiss him like that, especially not while he was drunk. The redhead wasn't done yet though, and when Ray turned his head slightly to face Michael, he leaned in quickly, hoping to steal at least a quick peck. Unfortunately, Ray was faster than him, and moved his head back, putting a hand in the middle of Michael's chest. 

"Stop it, idiot," Ray giggled, shoving him lightly. That was when he decided he should give up. He may have been drunk, but he wasn't an animal. He wasn't going to force anything onto Ray. 

As it would happen, at the precise moment all six of them were sitting there by the pond, drunk and loud, Burnie Burns and Joel Heyman just so happened to be on a spontaneous late night stroll through the park. Ryan was the first to be alerted of their presence; he could hear their loud thoughts before they even made it over the hill. 

"Fuck, Mr. Burns is here," he told the guys in a hushed whisper. They all quickly gathered and got themselves hidden in the shrubbery that surrounded the pond. It was dirty and a little wet but it would have to do. 

"Remind me again why we're trying to get Ray in trouble?" Joel muttered as they walked straight past where the boys were hidden. He kicked one of their empty beer bottles into the pond with a loud splash that made Gavin flinch. Geoff held him still. Ray found himself holding onto Michael for dear life. 

"Because Joel," Burnie started, sounding exhausted as though he had relayed this information thousands of times before. "We can't afford to have him in their group. Not only is he a fantastic example for our cause, having no powers, but I'd also like to avoid any collateral damage when it comes down to it."

"Right. Collateral damage."

 

Michael took Ray home that night, insistently placing kisses on his cheeks before letting him go. Ray had just chuckled and held onto Michael by the front of his shirt the whole time. After the redhead finally gave him enough space to do so, he climbed up to his bedroom window and waved goodbye. Michael stumbled off down the street and Ray shook his head, keeping his laughter muffled. When he closed his window, he could make out the faint sounds of his mom and grandma talking downstairs. They hadn't come up to check on him all night, luckily enough. With a sigh of relief, he collapsed onto his bed and smiled at the ceiling. Tonight had been almost perfect. He was actually getting somewhere with Michael. He actually stayed up for most of the night just thinking about it. Honestly, he couldn't believe how lucky he had got when his mother opened the door just ten minutes after him sneaking back inside to say goodnight. Lazily, he put on his headphones and fell asleep to his music.

_'People fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe just the touch of a hand._

_Well me, I fall in love with you every single day, and I just wanna tell you I am.'_

 

* * *

 

 

The next day, Ray's mom had actually given him permission to go out to meet Meg and Barb. They were dragging him along to the mall, where Barb wanted to buy some new art supplies and Meg needed some new fabrics. Last nights antics were still stuck in his head, and he'd been smiling like an idiot all morning. 

"Alright, c'mon, spit it out kid," Barbara started, digging for information. "What's got you so happy?"

"Last night," Ray began to explain without a moments hesitation. He knew he could trust Barbara and Meg, as they were definitely his closest friends, excluding the guys. "I went out and met the boys and, well, Michael tried to kiss me. Like, a lot." 

Meg actually  _screamed_ and Ray had to cover his ears while he laughed. They got a lot of strange looks as Meg jumped up and down happily and Barb pulled Ray into her arms.

"So he likes you too? He must!" Meg shouted and Ray had to shush her in between his laughter. Barb had let go of him and he was now being yanked into Meg's arms, not that he was bothered. He hugged her and grinned, nodding in agreement with her.

"Um," Barbara started uneasily, grabbing the attention of the other two. "I wouldn't be so sure, actually..." Her voice was full of a sad kind of sympathy as she indicated to the smoothie bar, where they could just about see Gavin and Michael sat beside each other. Kissing. Ray had to blink a few times to make sure his eyes weren't failing him.

"They...I..." Ray stuttered, unable to take his eyes off of the two of them before he felt Meg's warm arms wrapping around him once again, and Barbara was whispering upset apologies into his ear, her hand placed comfortingly on his shoulder. He didn't cry, but he definitely felt the sting in his eyes. "I didn't know they were..."

"Sweetheart, don't worry. If he's going to lead you on like that, then he's definitely not worth it." Meg assured, and Barbara mumbled her agreements. They carefully brought Ray away from the scene and spent the rest of the day trying to cheer him up. It worked to some extent, but he couldn't get the image of Michael and Gavin out of his mind. He was definitely glad he had friends like Meg and Barb. Honestly, if they weren't here for him, he probably would have broken down by now.

They went for a meal in some cheap restaurant and when Ray left for the bathroom, Meg and Barbara both gave each other the exact same disbelieving look.

"You're thinking it too?" Meg asked with sad eyes.

"They're making fun of him. They're leading him on and they're going to try and embarrass him in front of everybody because he hasn't got any powers and they're all high and mighty? Yeah, I'm thinking it too."

"Are we supposed to tell him?"

"No. We just have to keep him away from them as much as we can without hurting him," Barbara decided and Meg seemed to agree with her. It was their best shot.  

Ray didn't need to use the bathroom. He had gone up there to read through his old texts with Michael and let himself be sad about it for a while. Once he was done with that, he shot Ryan a quick text before heading back down to his table with his friends.

> **Ray - 5:45 PM**
> 
> **don't bother picking me up tomorrow**

 


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray ignores the boys all day, pissed and upset about what he had witnessed between Gavin and Michael. But when Michael sneaks through his bedroom window, things take a turn, hopefully for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brief and not at all detailed smut in this chapter  
> it's literally nothing so dw
> 
> :)  
> (again was editing very late so there are probably mistakes and I apologize i just wanted to get this up asap)
> 
> song used : stay with me by sam smith

"He'll be here," Michael assured quietly, looking around his lunch table at all the miserable faces and the one empty space where Ray should have been. He hadn't gone to school with them. He'd ignored them in their first classes together, and now he wasn't sitting with them at lunch. Not only that, he wasn't even in the lunch hall. 

"I think he's serious about this Michael," Geoff said, shaking his head. "He really doesn't want anything to do with us anymore."

"Ryan?" Gavin whined, obviously asking if he had tapped into Ray's mind recently. It was an unfair way of finding out what was going on, sure, but he had to know either way. They should have waited for Ray to tell them himself, but it didn't look like he was planning on ever speaking to them again at this point. 

"I haven't been close enough to read him today, and I can't find him among thousands of other students." Ryan told them, shaking his head. "I have no idea what's going on."

While the boys had been complaining about it, Jack had decided to drop Ray a text. It couldn't hurt. All of them missed him dearly, and they hadn't even spent one day without him yet; they had definitely been right when they thought Ray would change them. 

 

 

 

> **Jack- 12:33 PM**
> 
> **Ray, is everything alright? We're at our usual table if you want to join us! X**
> 
> **Ray- 12:35 PM**
> 
> **i'll pass.**

 

Ray sat in the library with Meg and Barbara after school was finally over, reading over his text with Jack and scowling. Meg had noticed his mood had changed, and she gave him the most comforting smile she could, which honestly did help him, if only a little. If Ray had never made friends with Meg and Barb, he dreaded to even think of where he would be right now. 

"Cheer up, buttercup," Meg told him, pulling him briefly into a hug which he returned with a smile. In the meantime, Barbara was exchanging flirty looks with Caleb across the room, which honestly made Ray a little uncomfortable considering his incident with Caleb, but he chose not to comment on it. Instead, he opted to look out for Barbara from afar. If he hurt her, Ray would be there. A shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold and a friend to hug; along with Meg of course. It was the least he could do after everything the two of them were doing for him. 

When he saw Ryan and Gavin walk through the doors, he almost groaned out loud. They had actually come looking for him. God, he really didn't need this right now. 

Apparently, Meg had noticed them too, and she quickly pushed Ray off of his seat and ordered him to hide. He did as he was told. Heading towards the bookshelves to conceal himself within, he noticed Gavin approaching Meg fast and quickened his pace. Luckily, he wasn't seen, but he'd lost track of Ryan already. 

"Meg!" Gavin beamed, though he looked a little uncertain if that was actually her name and Ray rolled his eyes. He could see the two of them through the gaps on the bookshelf he was hidden behind. "Have you by any chances seen Ray?"

"Nope. Not today," Meg lied, fairly convincingly. 

"Do you think that maybe," Barbara started, actually glaring at Gavin. Ray had never seen her look like that, and it was chilling. "If  _you_ haven't seen him, maybe he's avoiding you."

Just as Ray was letting himself smirk and be proud of Barbara's rude comment, someone turned him around and practically shoved him against the bookcase. If he didn't know better, he would have screamed, but he would recognise the blue of Ryan's eyes a mile away. Ray braced himself for some sort of lecture. Maybe an onslaught of questions. Possibly an stern talking to for upsetting Gavin.

"Have you eaten anything today, Ray?" was all he got out of Ryan. 

Ray shot a harsh glare at Ryan. "Really? That's all you're gonna ask?" He quickly remembered however, that it wasn't Ryan he was mad at. Nor was it any of the guys other than Michael really; but they had all been there when he had been flirting with him. They had all seen Michael placing seemingly innocent kisses anywhere Ray would let him and they had probably all laughed about how naive Ray had been afterwards. It nearly reduced him to tears just to think about it. But Ray had not cried in years and he wasn't about to start now. 

"You haven't." Ryan answered his own question, frowning as his eyes scanned Ray's, searching for the information there but Ray knew that it went deeper than that. He could almost feel Ryan scrambling through his mind, organizing all the information he could find there. 

"Stop it!" Ray protested, pushing Ryan angrily but he didn't move it all, so he just sort of ended up punching his chest. "Get out of my head! This is incredibly rude, you know that right!?"

"Ray..." Ryan said, completely ignoring Ray's requests for him to stop as a somber expression crossed his face. "You think that Gavin-"

"I don't think, I know! I know what I saw Ryan," Ray said, shaking his head and looking away.

"Ray, listen to me, you don't understand-"

"There's nothing to understand, now will you let me go!" He yelled, much too loud for the setting and Ryan had to let him run off after that. He realised too late that he had made a scene and that everyone was staring at him as he fled the library. Vaguely, he could hear Meg and Barbara shouting his name, but he ignored them. Ray went wherever his feet carried him. For some reason, that ended up being Mr. Hullum's class. Before he brought himself back to reality, he had already shoved the door open, so by this point there was no going back. Instantly, he broke down, collapsing onto the closest chair and covering his face with his hands. Tears were begging to fall but no way was he letting them, so he just kind of wracked with sobs for a moment before Matt was at his side. 

"Ray, what's going on?" he asked, pulling a chair next to Ray's with a comforting look about him. "Who was it, I can make some phone calls to parents if I need to-"

Ray let out a choked sound that was barely a bitter laugh at that. Matt had immediately assumed Ray was being bullied. Obviously he would have; Ray was a freak and he knew it. A powerless idiot who deserved to be picked on and that's just what everybody expected. "No, I'm fine."

"It really doesn't look that way," Matt pointed out rather blatantly. 

"Yeah. I know."

"Are you okay Ray? Have you been eating enough, getting enough sleep?"

"No. Not at all."

 

* * *

 

That night was torture. Ray's mom had hugged him for a solid hour, which would have been the best way to end a particularly bad day had it not been for his Grandma's insistent whining.

"I really don't understand why you won't just  _tell somebody_ what you're getting so upset about Ray," she had said, still spitting out his name like it was venomous on her lips. "This just makes you look weak! You don't want people to think you're weak, do you?  _Especially_ not when you're already lacking a power!" 

She had gone on all night until Ray had left to go to bed. He had got up mid-speech and his Grandma had screamed about how rude he was all the way up the stairs. He only managed to block her out when he had slammed his bedroom door and collapsed on his bed. Fortunately, her voice became a dull, muffled drone behind the door.

Finally, Ray let himself cry. He sobbed into his pillow, wrapping himself up in the blankets, the wetness of the tears extremely uncomfortable but that was hardly the most important thing on his mind right now. For a good five minutes, he drained himself of his tears. There was a brief pause of shaky breaths and nothing more before the tears started back again, and this time they lasted a lot longer. In fact, the sound of his own crying blocked out the reasonably loud noise of his bedroom window sliding open and Michael slipping in. Ray was only aware of his presence when he felt Michael's chest pressed against his back and his arm around him. For only a moment, he tensed up, fear coursing through him before Michael spoke. 

"Don't cry," Michael requested softly, placing a gentle kiss on Ray's cheek that made him shiver. 

"Michael," Ray sniffed quietly, turning around to face him. Really, this was all that he wanted right now, but he knew it was all he couldn't have. "You can't be here," he said, but his actions contradicted his words and he balled up his hands into fists in the front of Michael's shirt and pulled him closer gently. 

"Why can't I?" Michael mumbled, but the feeling of Ray's heartbeat against his own was distracting him from the answer. He brought his head down to kiss Ray's neck gently. Ray couldn't answer, not with Michael mouthing at his neck and trailing his fingers gently down his chest. He reached the hem of Ray's shirt and impatiently pulled it up over his head. Soon enough Ray had done the same to Michael and was appreciating the gentle curves of his body. Still though, when Michael leaned down purposely to capture Ray's lips in a kiss, he denied it, moving aside. Michael accepted this however, not here to push Ray over his boundaries. 

When his hands had roamed low enough to push down Ray's sweatpants just slightly, Michael was a little concerned about how prominent Ray's hipbones were, and how much they jutted out. Sure it was hot, but it didn't seem particularly healthy. He chose to ignore it however, feeling that maybe this wasn't the best time to bring up a topic that was obviously sensitive and upsetting. Instead, he opted for delving his hand into Ray's sweatpants and the sharp intake of breath he got as a response encouraged him. 

Ray didn't know that this was okay. It was  _amazing_ but the whole time, there was a trace of guilt at the back of his mind. He carried it through the whole way until it hit him hard in his orgasm. That pang of horrible guilt because he didn't know. The guilt stayed with him as he lazily returned the favour for Michael, and while they cuddled until they were both out of their haze. 

"Michael," Ray choked out, tears slipping out once again and Michael instinctively tightened his hug. 

"Ray? Ray, please, don't. It's okay, it's all okay," Michael tried to assure him, cuddling him close. "Me and Gavin, we're not...God, I probably should have told you this before..." He shook his head, cursing himself. 

"What're you talking about?" Ray asked, sniffling quietly.

"It's...Look, it's a lot to take in, maybe we should talk about when everybody's here." Michael said, concerned about how the guys would feel about sharing this with Ray. For a moment, he was actually worried that maybe this did count as cheating. But they all wanted Ray with them, right? He'd have to talk to the boys about it. 

"Why would we do that?" Ray sighed, growing impatient. Frustrated and feeling horrible, he just wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to know now. 

"Just trust me." 

"Fine. Whatever," with that, he got up out of his bed. "I'm gonna go shower. You should leave." Without giving Michael a moment to respond, he left the room. 

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Ray had woken up particularly early and was actually ready to go by 7:30 am. He chose not to leave however, in favour of settling down for a cup of coffee with his mom. Fortunately, his Grandma was still in bed, so he didn't have to deal with her. He had one earphone in, simply enjoying the company of his mother. She was doing the same, snuggled up close to him on the couch with a magazine in her hands. 

Last night, Ray had wanted Michael to stay so badly. He'd wanted to cuddle and fall asleep beside him, then wake up to the sound of his heartbeat. Instead, it just ended up being one dirty night that he already regretted. He hadn't wanted it to happen like that. 

_These nights never seem to go to plan,_

_I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand?_

_Oh won't you, stay with me._

_Cause you're all I need._

His music was blaring in his earphones and he could almost roll his eyes at how relevant the song was at the moment. He felt the heat and passion of last night in every lyric and heard Michael in the rhythm. It was pathetic.

_Deep down I know this never works._

_But you could lay with me so it doesn't hurt._

There was an unexpected knock at the door and Ray was up like a bolt to answer it. Anything to distract him from his depressing thoughts. Unfortunately, (though he didn't really know why he'd expected anything different) he had opened up his front door to all of his problems. All five of them, stood there in heavy coats, dripping wet from the relentless rain. Shaking his head, he let all of them in and brought them into the living room, which his mother promptly fled to make space for them. Gavin Michael and Ryan sat themselves down on the couch and Jack and Geoff took either chair. Ray stood in front of them all. 

"Well?" He started. "I take it you told them?" 

"Yeah. I told them," Michael confirmed. 

"And?"

"And we have something important to tell you. And we're not sure what you're gonna think of it. And you really need to listen," Geoff said, taking on his role as the leader of their group. Ray nodded, leaning back against the wall and readying himself. "You were right to think Michael and Gavin are together."

Ray's eyes brimmed with tears straight away. He was just some cheap whore that Michael had used. The bit on the side of whatever was going on between the two of them, but Geoff raised a hand to show he wasn't finished. Not seeing how he could possibly make any of this okay, Ray shook his head and looked at the floor. 

"But Michael is also dating me. And Jack, and Ryan. And he kinda wants to date you too. We all do."

By this point, Ray had blinked away his tears and was simply staring at Geoff, a baffled look about him. "What are you talking about?"

"Us," Gavin said, signalling around the room at all of his boys. "We're all together."

Ray shifted his confused stare from Geoff onto Gavin, then Ryan, Jack and finally Michael. "All five of you?" The group nodded. "Dating each other?" They nodded again. " _All five of you are dating each other?_ "

"Yes, Ray," Gavin confirmed for him again. "And we...well we like you. Like, a lot."

" _All five of you?_ "

"How many times are you going to say that?" Ryan sighed, rolling his eyes but there was a small smile playing on his lips. "All five of us are dating and all five of us want to date you."

Shocked, or overwhelmed were both understatements to how Ray was feeling. Not only did he not really understand how a five-way relationship could possibly work, he'd obviously never considered anything even to similar to this for himself. Mainly because it was fucking  _weird_. Also because he couldn't even get  _one_ person take romantic interest in him, much less  _five_. He couldn't help wonder if he could make it work. These were his boys. He had only known them for two months, but it already felt like years.  _  
_

"I don't..." Ray started, stumbling over his words and shaking his head. "I can't...You guys are fucking insane you know that?"

"So you want in?" Geoff said with a hopeful grin.

Ryan had read the answer in Ray's mind before it left his lips and they shared a knowing chuckle.

"Wow, I mean, I guess. But you gotta give me a little time to get used to it..." Ray told them carefully, closing in on himself a little. "And don't try to impress me with your  _amazing_ powers or I'll use my fantastic power of rejection."

All of the boys laughed at that, and just like that, their five had become a six. 

 

When the boys got to school that morning, Burnie had seen them arrive through his classroom window. Ray was in between Gavin and Michael, holding both of their hands like kids on a stroll through the park and he was wrapped up in Jack's coat that hung very loosely on his small frame. To Burnie, it was obvious what this meant. Slowly and with regret, he picked up his class phone, dialing Joel's class number. 

  _"_ _What's up?_ " Joel's voice said over the line, a certain level of urgency laced within his tone.  _  
_

"It's Ray. The powerless boy. There's no saving him now."


	7. Things Are Gonna Get Easier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys convince Ray to tell his mom about their relationship, but he can't do that without telling his Grandma too. Meanwhile, Burnie and Joel are hatching their plan for the boys, and it doesn't look pleasant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's been a while i know, i suck
> 
> enjoy!

As it turned out, Ray had to avoid showing his boys affection during school; nobody knew about their six way relationship. Honestly, it was more important that Ray keep it to himself. If the kids at this school thought having no powers was weird, they were definitely going to object to a polyamorous relationship. Apparently though, it was imperative that he tell his mother. Geoff was even insisting that the boys go over to Ray's house that night to explain the whole thing to her. 

"Woah, woah, slow it down a little," Ray chuckled, shaking his head. He was stabbing the cafeteria food with a fork, not really eating any of it. "So, I can't tell Meg and Barbara but you're making me tell my  _mom_?" He sighed in disbelief.

"We can't risk having it get around," Jack explained, calmly and politely as he always was.

"But we also don't want you going behind your mom's back. It's obvious how close you two are, we don't wanna break apart the relationship between you," Geoff added over a mouthful of pasta. Ray grimaced and threw a scrunched up napkin at him, which all the boys, including Geoff, laughed at. 

"I dunno guys," Ray mumbled quietly, bringing back the serious atmosphere. This was not something Gavin was pleased about. He wanted it to remain as lighthearted as possible, and obviously, Ryan sensed this.  

"Hey, I'm sure your mom will be very accepting of leaving you in such capable, strong and perfect arms as our own," he told Ray, a mocking grin on his face as Gavin stood up from his chair. 

" _Where have all the good men gone and where are all the Gods!?_ " he sang at the top of his lungs. It gained a lot of attention from everybody in the lunch hall, but all they did was glance up and immediately dismiss it. It was like a general, unanimous reaction of 'oh, it's just Gavin'. The boys laughed and Michael shushed him, yanking him back down into his chair by his shirt. These boys were unbelievable. Already, Ray was questioning how on Earth someone like him had managed to get so lucky. How a boy with no powers at all, nothing that made him special or interesting, could gain the attention of, not one beautiful boy with amazing talents, but  _five._ It was wonderful, but it was all very bizarre.  _  
_

"Alright, alright. You guys can come over and we'll talk to my mom but I have no idea how she's gonna react. Also, my Grandma is over for the next few days," his tone dropped when he spoke about her. Instantly, the boys could tell this was a problem. Ryan was just about to delve into Ray's mind, desperate to uncover some information about his grandma but he restrained himself the best he could. He knew Ray didn't like when he did that.

"Is that gonna be... _okay?_ " It was Michael who ended up asking in the end. Overall so far, he was the closest with Ray out of all of the boys. They had been the most intimate. 

The last thing Ray wanted was to worry them by saying no. Really, he thought, what was the worst that could happen? "Nah, should be fine."

 

"What exactly are we supposed to do about this?" Joel sighed, taking a seat on the desk closest to the door. He had wandered down to Burnie's classroom to discuss the fate of the powerless boy. Now that he was practically inseparable from their targets, he would doubtlessly become involved in the elimination process. "It's not like we can use  _his_  powers too. He hasn't got any."

"Yes, thanks for the reminder," Burnie said, rolling his eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "There isn't much we can do for the poor kid now. We're starting in a month. We can't break them up in a month." Taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, Burnie sighed. He really had wanted to save Ray from getting involved with these boys. The less collateral damage, the easier the elimination process would be. 

"Are we really gonna have to do that? Make him watch while we drain his boyfriend's powers? Burnie, that's torture."

"It's torture for the boys. You don't seem to have a problem with that."

"You raise a fair point," Joel nodded in agreement, and the both of them laughed over it for a while.

 

Power honing class was just as miserable for Ray as ever. He craved the ability to join in with the others; every activity looked enticing to him. Obviously though, without a power, he was totally useless in these lessons. 

_Ray?_

The voice in his head made him jolt upright. His eyes widened and he looked around him, as if expecting someone to be stood right beside him. It took his brain a moment to register that it must have been Ryan in his head. That was when he felt the icy blue gaze on him from across the room.

 _Good, it's working. I've been trying to set up a mind link with you for weeks now._ Ryan said to him, and Ray laughed out loud and shook his head, something that went unnoticed by everyone. No one paid attention to him in this class anyway. 

 _Ray! You're here!_ This time, it was Gavin's voice. He was quickly followed by Geoff and Jack, all of them sounding equally excited. Only Michael stayed silent, and Ray could see that it was because he was intensely focused on his training. He imagined that with the pure strength in his fire power, came the responsibility of constant concentration. 

As nice as it was to listen to the conversation between the boys in his head, it was a little overwhelming. They all talked over each other and it was just generally and odd feeling to have other voices within your mind. Granted, he trusted all of these voices. These voices sounded like home to him. It did leave him with a little bit of a headache after Ryan had lost the energy to keep them all connected. 

"You guys should start gathering for your group assessment with Mr. Burns!" Mr. Hullum announced to the class very briefly. There was an instant scramble in the room. Every single person wanted to have one of the boys in their group. However, they obviously all wanted to be together and really, they were superior, so they got what they wanted. Ray got a little enjoyment for the rest of the class, watching them work together, trying to co-ordinate some kind of routine for their assessment. It was pretty cute, watching Ryan stress, Geoff laugh, Jack try to hold some peace and Gavin squawk and squeal. Michael was the one doing all of the yelling, as was predictable. 

"Gavin! Will you stop!" Michael shouted at the top of his lungs as said Brit darted around them, appearing on one side of Michael, then the other within the blink of an eye. When Michael went for him, he was on the other side of the room before he could be hurt, and Michael was falling to the floor before he was able to catch himself. Honestly, all of the boys (including Michael) had to laugh at that. Gavin was back with them a moment later, cuddling up to Michael and apologizing quietly, but Michael only brushed him off. 

"Ray, I'm gonna make it your job to keep these boys in check," Mr. Hullum decided, shaking his head and laughing. Ray's whole face lit up. Even if it was minimal, he was going to be able to participate in a power honing class. 

The rest of the class ran smoothly. Ray helped the boys to order a routine and even managed to get his voice across some of the  _louder_ personalities; this was particularly Michael and Geoff. The boys had a great dynamic. Ray thought their assessment was going to go just fine. 

 

* * *

 

 

When the final bell had finally sounded and all the boys had met up in the parking lot, Ryan gave his coat to Ray. It was too big on him, and made him more adorable than the guys already thought he was. Quietly blushing at his boy's comments on it, Ray got out his phone and called his mom. 

 _"Hi Petal. I'm just around the corner, okay?"_ she told him on the line, the quiet sound of traffic in the background.

"Yeah, that's fine. Um, would it be alright for the boys to come over?" 

_"All of them? I don't know Ray, they can't all get in the car-"_

"Ryan can drive behind us."

_"Grandma is over..."_

"It's important, mom. Please?"

Ray's mom sighed. She really didn't take much convincing.  _"Alright. Okay, fine."_

 

 

When they got home, Ray's Grandma was watching one of the boring shows that Grandparent's watch about doctors and drama. They all took off their shoes and coats and Ray's mom took them politely and put them away. "Are you boys going to stay the night? We can set up the living room for you to sleep in." She offered. 

"If that wouldn't be too much trouble, ma'am," Ryan replied for them, a charming grin on his voice. 

"None at all Dear!" Marie, Ray's mother, chimed, about to head off to the kitchen before Ray stopped her.

"Mom, wait. Can we talk to you please?" Ray asked quietly. He suddenly felt quite small, and his nerves were crazy. His mother seemed to sense this.

"Alright, of course Petal!" She smiled encouragingly and kissed his forehead, going into the living room and sitting herself down calmly beside her mother. Ray's grandma muted the TV as he wandered in with all of his boys. Ryan, Geoff and Jack sat on the free couch and Michael and Gavin crossed their legs on the floor. Ray remained standing. He figured he should, what with such an important announcement. 

Marie knew about Ray's sexual preference, and had done for a long time, but she knew that her mother was still unaware of this. She knew that she would never accept it, so had advised Ray to keep it to himself. Now, she was starting to worry. The first time Michael had stayed over, she definitely saw that Ray had a crush on him. If he had really brought him over to announce their relationship, Marie could not think of a worse time; and she certainly couldn't understand why they had brought all of their friends with them. 

"Um...Well," Ray started, sighing off his nerves and shaking his head. "So, we're dating. Like, all of us, all of us are dating."

And so, chaos erupted. 

 

Ray couldn't really remember much, just that there was blood on his cheek and his Grandma had gathered her things and left. He was curled up on his bed, surrounded by his boys when he snapped back into reality. He hadn't passed out, but he had switched off mentally. He could finally hear the soothing words of his boys and soon, his mother had opened the door, holding a tray of hot chocolates and cookies for everybody. She set it down on the floor beside the bed and Ray finally brought himself to sit up. 

"Feeling any better, Petal?" She asked him quietly, and it was only now that he realised Gavin was holding a a tissue to the scratch marks that had come from long nails on his face. Mopping up the blood. 

"I guess," he mumbled quietly, reaching out his hand for somebody to hold. Ryan took it with a careful touch. 

He couldn't remember and he didn't want to remember. 

 

The boys remembered it all perfectly, as quickly as it had happened. It brought them back to the awful day that they had announced their relationship to Michael's father not too long ago. 

_"There's nothing normal about you is there?" Ray's Grandma drawled, shaking her head. Abruptly, she stood from her spot on the couch and slapped Ray hard on his face. She made sure to drag her pointed nails across his cheek, and they came away bloody. "You're a freak!" She screamed, and Ray could do nothing but stare at the floor, blood dripping from the scratches on his face. Marie was on her feet quickly, pulling her mother back as she went for another hit to Ray's face. "You shouldn't be alive, you're a monster! You don't eat, you have no powers, and now you're a filthy faggot too? A slut for all of these boys to use, they don't love you, nobody loves you!"_

_"Don't touch him! Don't you dare touch him!" Marie was yelling over and over, and the boys simply could not watch. Apparently, Ray's Grandma's power was, well, power. She quite literally threw Marie off of her, and she went flying into the wall. Gavin was in his feet in an instant, behind her before she could catch him, but really he was just the distraction. Jack was with Marie, using his healing powers to stop the ache in her bones from the force with which she had been launched against the wall. Michael sent radiating and agonizing heat through Ray's grandma's body, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was nothing that would cause long term damage. Geoff kept her still with his controlling powers so she could not go for Ray again even if she tried. Ryan was desperately searching for some sort of signal from Ray, but it was as if he were no longer there._

_This went on until Michael could no longer hold himself up. To burn someone from the inside with actually causing damage drained a fire elemental. He collapsed on to the couch breathing heavily and Geoff lost his hold on Ray's Grandma. She was up and out of the door in seconds, because she could not win this fight._

 

They never thought they would have to experience something like that again. The boys were so grateful that at least Ray's mom could accept him. She was such a wonderful woman, and they couldn't really understand why when she had been raised by  _that_. All they could do now was try to make Ray feel better. Try to make it all go away. 

Sadly though, soon, he would have to do it on his own. 


	8. The Eliminators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'The Eliminators' are back. The boys are in serious trouble, and the power honing assessment is mere weeks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back from hiatus :D
> 
> i am so sorry i left you guys waiting this long, i suck i know <3

 

>   ** _The_ _Eliminators_**
> 
> _The Elminators were a politic group against the current political system. They presented the idea that all politicians/'decision makers' were those with high class and impressive powers. The Eliminators believed it was unfairly impossible to enter the political system unless you were blessed with a special power, and that those with common or 'unimpressive' powers were not being represented in the world of politics._
> 
> _(...)_
> 
> _When the peaceful protests of The Eliminators were completely ignored, the group took to violent methods, known commonly as 'The Elimination Process'. 'The Elimination Process' would slowly and painfully drain the powers from the subject's body, leaving them in a coma from which only one individual was ever reported to have woken. Politician Ryan Brackett woke from his coma with no power and no recollection of how he lost it. He was promptly made redundant from work and found dead in his apartment weeks later, from unknown causes._
> 
> _A total of 45 individuals had their powers eliminated before The Eliminators were arrested and charged in 2001. All 14 members of the group are serving a life sentence._

 

The urge to interrupt him before he had even finished talking was overwhelming. Ray was sat in one of his now very frequent meetings with Mr. Burns and his mother. In fact, they had had so many of these excruciating meetings, that 'Burnie' and Ray's mother were on a first name basis now, and that was extremely discomforting for Ray. He hadn't forgotten about what he had overheard at the park that night. Mr. Burns had called him 'collateral damage'. It was truly unsettling to be anywhere near him. The scratches on his cheek were still very prominent. He could only be thankful that nobody had questioned them. 

"So, really Marie, Ray is becoming a definite cause for concern," Burnie finished, after a very long explanation of how Ray's grades had dropped dramatically since he started the RT program. Ray knew this, and he also knew that what Burnie was implying, about it being because so much of his time was now devoted to his boyfriends, was very much true. With five boyfriends, there wasn't much time for studying; a problem that Ray never thought he would have. 

"Petal, maybe you should spend some time away from the boys, hey?" His mother suggested, looking at him with those sympathetic eyes, because she knew how much he hated these meetings. She didn't know he hated Mr. Burns, though. That was one thing he kept to himself. 

"We've actually been considering moving his classes, taking him away from the boys, you know? I think they're a very bad influence on you Ray." Burnie explained, shaking his head and trying to imitate Marie's affectionate, sorry look, but he was trying far too hard. Ray could tell it was not genuine. 

"No, they need me. And I like to be with them." Ray decided, very settled upon the idea that he was not changing classes. 

"Ray, this isn't about them, it's about you. Your education. The rest of your _life_ ," Burnie emphasised. "You can't just throw it all away because of some boys you quite like. Without good grades, and without a power, there's not gonna be many options for you Ray. This is vital for you."

"I completely agree," Marie said, nodding along with him. "I'm sorry, Ray. You're just going to have to deal with it."

 

* * *

 

 

Weirdly enough, being taken away from his boys only brought him closer to them. They were literally inseparable everyday after school, and on the weekends. This Saturday was no exception, all of them gathered at the cafe where Meg worked. It was a nice way for Ray to spend time with both his boys and Meg, but it did mean they needed to keep their relationship on the down low. However, that didn't mean they couldn't flirt. Ray purposely sat on Ryan's lap instead of bringing another chair to the table and Michael and Geoff were holding hands under the table. Gavin was leaning tiredly on Jack, playing with his phone without much interest. 

"Your flirting is painfully obvious," Meg told them as she approached their giggling group. Her bright red hair was done up in curls and her lips were coated, the same colour as her hair. She seemed to be going for a red theme, wearing the scarlet coloured shirt that she had stolen from Ray some time last week when she had stayed over. Sadly enough for Meg, her power wasn't of much use here, and she had only been hired because her mom owned the cafe. While having the ability to turn objects invisible (though it was much harder on large objects or things that weren't in the vicinity) was really cool, it didn't do her much good. All she could do was hide the dirty dishes that she didn't feel like washing. 

"I am very subtle, I'll have you know," Ray argued, but knew he had lost the argument just by his position on Ryan's lap. 

 "Holy shit dude," Geoff murmured from across the table, staring down at today's newspaper with a forlorn look. He was suddenly holding onto Michael very tightly, and it didn't go unnoticed. "The Eliminators. They're fuckin' back, man."

"That isn't possible," Ryan immediately argued, and Ray didn't go unaware of how much he had tensed up.

"Read it." Geoff encouraged, shoving the paper towards Ryan and Ray without enthusiasm. There was a scary sort of concern in his eyes as he looked at Ryan. Ray had never seen any of them look at  _Ryan_ like that. "Two kids from RT had their powers eliminated last night. 

"I thought the only people who knew how to Eliminate were in prison," Meg chimed in, not as cheerily as she normally would, but she was still trying to add some positivity to the matter at hand. 

"Clearly somebody else must have figured it out." Geoff said gravely, his eyes never leaving Ryan as he studied the headline over and over again.

 

* * *

 

 

That night, Ray immediately did a search on 'The Eliminators' on his phone. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, or why the boys had been so put down by it for the rest of the day. Reading up on the group made him feel sick. Sure, being powerless himself, Ray wasn't particularly happy about the way that politics worked these days; but  _draining_ people of their powers? Just because they were better than yours? It was awful. 

Finally, he understand why the boys had seemed so dismal. So worried. Their powers were the most impressive things Ray had ever seen. If 'The Eliminators' were back in action, they would be targeting the people with the highest class of powers first. That meant the boys were in very serious trouble.  _Especially_ Geoff and Ryan, who had the rarest powers of them all. 

Ray was hit with a sudden urge to cuddle all of them as close as he could. He needed to feel them, to make sure they were all still here, still alive, still  _powerful_ , even with this intimidating threat over their heads. As hard as he tried, all that Ray could see was the pure defeat in Ryan's eyes as he read over that headline  _over and over again._

The boys were terrified.

And there was nothing Ray could do to help them. 

For the first time in a while now, Ray felt truly  _powerless._

 

* * *

 

 

The boys routine for their power honing assessment was actually coming along quite nicely. It was difficult to get five people with such big powers to really collaborate well, but they knew each other's dynamics. Naturally, the boys powers would bounce off of each other to showcase how impressively beautiful and every one of them was. Ray didn't doubt they would pass with flying colours. 

Directing the boys was Ray's job, and it was what he would ultimately be graded on (Hullum probably couldn't think of anything else to do with him). He would have to attend the assessment in front of Burnie Burns with the boys in a few weeks time, and he hadn't been at all nervous. Not until today. 

While Ryan drove them all home in his compact truck, Ray's phone buzzed insistently in his pocket. Eventually, he fished it out, just to check if his mom needed him.

 

> **Blocked- 3.23 PM**
> 
> don't turn up to your assessment
> 
> **Blocked- 3.25 PM**
> 
> ray narvaez jr. do not go to your power honing assessment. 
> 
> **Blocked- 3.30 PM**
> 
> we've warned you

 

He didn't tell the boys about the texts.

 

 


End file.
